Master of Clockwork: Dehumanized
by Dekord
Summary: Naruto stays to fight Sasori during his mission to rescue Gaara, and pays for it with his life. Resurrected through a desperate deal with Jashin, he is thrust back into his old body- which is now a puppet. Rejected by the world he came back to protect, Naruto begins a long and arduous journey to totality. It starts with a futile goal: becoming human.
1. Chapter 1

**Foreword: The ship you are about to board, the story you are about to read, will take you into a dark sea, a dismal tale full of cycles, humanity and the lack thereof, puppets both figurative and literal. You may leave at any time, of course. But should you decide to stay with the vessel toward the end, perhaps you will take away something from it. A mental souvenir on the nature of our existence on this world. A figurative trinket that will remind you to think deeply on occasion. That souvenir, that trinket, is the purpose of this tale. For while every story is meant to entertain, to occupy one's time and fill one's head with ideas, this one wants to teach you something, or else get you thinking. Because we are not human without thought, and if we are not human, what is the alternative?**

* * *

Sakura punched through the now unsealed wall that blocked the entrance to the Akatsuki meeting chamber, and Naruto was prepared for the worst as he walked inside alongside Kakashi, Chiyo, and Sakura. But the jinchuuriki felt a chill before he even saw the contents of the cave. A strange feeling of calm washed over him, a feeling he recognized as the calm before the storm. If Gaara was dead… he knew he would explode. He couldn't lose another friend, not like this. Not to these bastards. Gaara… Gaara had been just like Naruto. The two had felt a sense of kinship upon their last parting, and Naruto couldn't help but feel that Gaara was a part of himself. He was interrupted from his musing by the sight of the inside of the cave.

Two Akatsuki members stood inside the large, dripping chamber hall. One was a very odd, hunched over figure, and the other was a young, blonde man with some sort of device over his eye. Both were dressed in the traditional Akatsuki robes. What interested Naruto far more than them, though, was the corpse lying beside them. It was Gaara, in his Kazekage robes- representing everything that Naruto wanted to be. A better Naruto. And he was lying there, dead. It felt like the Akatsuki had just killed not only a friend, but Naruto himself- his future, his dreams.

The process began with a cold feeling of metal sliding in his veins. He knew that his party members and the two Akatsuki members were talking about something, but he couldn't hear them over an increasing buzzing in his ear. It was the voice of the Kyuubi, whispering madly into his ear about blood and death. He honestly couldn't even make out the words of the Tailed Beast speaking directly in his head, because his anger was growing too quickly out of control. He fell to all fours by instinct, feeling tails of chakra develop behind him along with his cloak.

He could feel nothing but rage, now. He didn't hear the cry of Kakashi, imploring him to wait, or Sakura's cry of "Naruto" as he leapt forward. All he saw was the blonde douchebag grab Gaara's body and get on some sort of bird- he made a chakra enhanced jump at it, and nearly managed to snag its head before the Akatsuki member dodged backward. Unfortunately for him, at the same time the other Akatsuki member grabbed the bird with his metallic tail and brought it crashing down to the ground. The blonde man cried out something, and tossed the corpse to the man that was low to the ground, who caught it with the same tail he used to bring down the bird.

Then the man with the bird left, but not before throwing a couple of clay figures in Naruto's direction. Deftly moving out of the way, Naruto was about to leap at the hunched over figure before a hand managed to slap him in the back with a chakra-restraining seal. Naruto suddenly felt himself calm down against his will, and his senses activated once more as he was brought to reality.

"…I'll take the corpse, and fight them. You fly on off on your "art"."

That was a very deep voice. In response came the voice of the young blonde man:

"Fine, Sasori, if you want to fight the jinchuuriki so badly, I guess I'm in no position to stop you, yeah? Still, I'm not going away without a little action of my own."

Naruto saw the blonde man head away on another clay bird, throwing bombs at his teammates. They managed to dodge in time, however. Kakashi began speaking quickly.

"Me and Naruto will head off toward Deidara. Chiyo, you and Sakura can handle Sasori, yes?"

Naruo cried out:

"I'll fight Sasori, sensei. I want Gaara back."

Naruto saw his teacher look into his determined face and only nod at his request. Naruto realized that he acquiesced only because it was easier than arguing when the blonde man, apparently Deidara, was already getting away.

"Very well, me and Sakura will go after Deidara. Come, Sakura."

With that, Kakashi and Sakura left after Sakura gave a quick thumbs up and confidence-inspiring nod to Naruto. Feeling himself slightly bolstered by that display, Naruto created a few clones and was about to rush at Sasori, but was stopped by Chiyo's voice.

"Naruto… wait. My grandson is not an enemy you can just blindly attack."

However, it was already too late. Naruto had taken to attacking his enemy head on with a Rasengan in hand, and all of his clones were quickly popped by a barrage of needles from Sasori's mouth. Chiyo shook her head as Naruto, injured from the poison, jumped back to Chiyo.

"I hope that beast inside of you can heal that poison, child, because I don't know how to. It seems… it seems as though my grandson is inside that puppet."

Naruto looked at her in surprise.

"What do you mean… inside that puppet? That's not him?"

Chiyo nearly slapped him, but had to dodge a barrage of kunai from Sasori's tail. Sasori spoke up in his deep voice:

"You're a slow one, aren't you, boy? You would not have survived this long without the Kyuubi inside of you."

He had hit a nerve. Naruto barked out:

"Shut up! I can handle myself without the Kyuubi. I'm gonna shove that puppet where the sun don't shine, you bastard! Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Sasori easily disposed of the numerous Shadow Clones that Naruto made with a cloud of poison. Naruto fell to the ground coughing.

"Come on, boy, show me some of the power of the Tailed Beast inside of you, or this is going to be a very short fight."

Naruto got up and wiped away the blood that was starting to come out of his mouth. He shouted back in return:

"Give back GAARA!"

Two puppets controlled by Chiyo suddenly dashed toward Sasori, and he had to swat them aside with his tail. However, as he did this, the puppets circled around and came back. He prepared to strike them down with his tail again before Naruto made another round of clones and charged at Sasori. Ignoring the clones coming down, Sasori chose to deal with the puppets that Chiyo had sent at him- that turned out to be a mistake as a Rasengan bore through his puppet armor, shattering it.

Out of it jumped the real Sasori, a man who looked much too young for his age. He had red hair and was dressed in an Akatsuki robe. Chiyo cried out from behind Naruto:

"Sasori..! What have you done..?"

Sasori replied in an amused tone:

"Seems I have underestimated the little jinchuuriki, haven't I? And for that I paid with Hiroko. Oh, well. As for your question, _grandma_, I turned myself into a puppet. I thought that would be obvious. Look at you, age deteriorating your body and your ninja skills. You know you're going to die soon, right? You have an imperfect human body, while… I have ascended."

Sasori tossed aside his robe for dramatic effect, revealing the puppet underneath. He easily deflected Naruto's rush at him, sending the teenager flying into a wall.

"You're even using my old puppets- Mother and Father. What, did you hope that would have some effect on me? That those tokens of my past- the puppets I built to fight the loneliness when my parents died- would actually get me to mellow and reflect? You're more foolish than I remember you being, Chiyo, for you to use my own puppets on me. I thought I taught that lesson effectively enough against the first ninja from your village that tried to stop me from taking your Kazekage."

Chiyo shook her head.

"You've become a monster, Sasori. These puppets are not quite the way you remember them- you are not the only one who is adept at puppeteering, grandson."

Sasori laughed and threw a scroll on the ground.

"I have another surprise for you, grandma."

With that, he unsealed the Third Kazekage puppet that was contained within the scroll. Chiyo nearly crumpled to her knees, and Naruto, recovering, saw her reaction.

"What's wrong, Grannie?"

Chiyo turned her head, mouth slightly open, toward Naruto.

"He… that's the Third Kazekage. The one who went missing during the war. The one… we never knew what happened to him."

In a sadistic tone, Sasori replied.

"Now you know, don't you? I especially prize this puppet, because of the effort it took to subdue him."

Naruto got up. His head was still spinning from the blow that sent him crashing into the cave wall- a blow, he suspected, that would have killed most other ninja. He really didn't want to admit it, but he did rely on the Kyuubi a lot. Dismissing that dismal thought from his head, he suddenly realized the implication of Sasori using the Third Kazekage. He saw red, and a single tail formed behind him.

"You bastard! You turn people into puppets?! What kind of monster are you?! Is that what you were planning to do with Gaara?!"

The master puppeteer turned to the jinchuuriki, and in Sasori's tone crept a note of satisfaction.

"Finally using the power of the Kyuubi, are we? Let's see what you can do, shall we?"

Metallic sand poured out of the mouth of the puppet of the Third Kazekage, and formed several lances before launching at Naruto. Naruto dodged out of them using his enhanced speed, and nearly hit Sasori in the face with a Rasengan- unfortunately for the Leaf genin, Sasori ducked and impaled Naruto through the stomach with a blade from underneath. Turning on his flamethrower, he fried the jinchuuriki alive, and tossed aside the body as he turned to face Chiyo in time for him to get hit by a combination attack from the Mother and Father puppets. The upper half of the puppet body was torn apart, and the construction fell to the ground.

Naruto regained consciousness, and opened his red slitted eyes to Chiyo standing over him, attempting to heal the damage to his body. He croaked:

"Granny, get out of the way..!"

Obediently, she jumped back, just as a burst of chakra exited Naruto's body and formed another two tails behind him. His burns visibly healed under the chakra cloak. However, his reasoning ability left him completely, and all he could see was a newly unsealed Sasori standing over the broken body of the old puppet. He dashed to the puppeteer at speeds far faster than the ones before. As he entered taijutsu combat with his enemy, he quickly began to overwhelm him until he was forced to dodge a wall of iron sand crashing down onto him.

He watched as the Mother and Father puppets engaged the Third Kazekage puppet wielded by Sasori, and dashed to Sasori again. The puppeteer, ready this time, lifted his arm and coated the area with a powerful flamethrower. Naruto hit the ground again, and the Third Kazekage puppet dashed over to the Konoha ninja's body before Chiyo could stop him. The sand poured out of his mouth and began impaling Naruto's prone but healing body. He felt each and every single stab of poisoned sand into his body until he lost consciousness.

Chiyo wasted no time in unsealing her ten puppets, and sending them at the Third Kazekage puppet in a vain attempt to save Naruto's life. Sasori smirked.

"You can't save him, Grandma. He is going to be my puppet now- I've never had a jinchuuriki puppet before. I really want to try. The Akatsuki do not matter to me as much as this."

With those words, the final lance of iron sand stopped mangling Naruto's body and cut off his head. Chiyo reminded herself to feel nothing at the foolish boy's death as she sent her puppets to try and kill Sasori.

* * *

Naruto felt himself adrift in some sort of river as his consciousness was returned to him. What awoke him was a general din of desperate voices from all around him- up and down as well. In fact, looking around him, he was adrift in some sort of cloud tunnel along with countless other people. All of them were grey and naked, and looking at his own hands, Naruto found that he was grey and naked as well. They were the cause of the uproar that awoke him. It took him a long moment to realize he was dead. He was actually dead. All of his hopes and dreams- his plans of becoming Hokage, his goal of getting Sasuke back- all of that was dead. He couldn't comprehend it. His mind absolutely refused to believe in it. It was… just… He couldn't accept it.

Naruto was not one to despair, usually. The few times he did within the last few years, Jiraiya was there to pull him out of it. But Jiraiya was not dead, Naruto was. And Naruto couldn't believe it. In his mind, he had built up a sort of illusion for himself- a belief in his own invincibility, partially because of the Kyuubi, that kept him going and taking the unnecessary risks that he did. Jiraiya warned him that that would be his downfall, even though he had not told Jiraiya any of it. Now, it seemed that his teacher was right.

What would become of him now that he was dead? He had the distinct impression that he was moving, despite having no point of reference- everything appeared to be moving at the same rate he was. Where was his destination? What would happen to him? Heck, more importantly, what would happen to his friends, his loved ones, the ones he had formed bonds with? What would become of Konoha without the power of the Nine Tails? Without… him?

Although that last thought was incredibly conceited of Naruto and he would have quickly reprimanded himself for it had he been in any rational frame of mind, it slipped by unnoticed as truth in his mind. As such, his desperation to somehow reverse his death only increased- there had to be a way out, didn't there? All his life, Naruto had encountered barriers that seemed insurmountable, with people all around him tell him that there was no way he could possibly broach them. But one by one, those barriers had fallen. Although he hadn't recovered Sasuke yet, he still felt like he could. Death, then, had to be no different.

Naruto comforted himself with this thought, but after a few hours of nothing changing around him, despair silently crept into his mind again. There was no chance- there could be no more chances. After all, death was final. All he could do now was await his fate, await the judgment that was waiting for him on the other side. As if out of nowhere, a gigantic black hand grabbed out at him from the sides of the stream, and pulled him in. Naruto did not have time to scream or react in any way before he was pulled into blackness.

Naruto suddenly found himself in an endless wasteland- a dark, ravaged land where the very ground was blackened. Above him shined a wane moon in a starless sky. All around him was the blackened earth in the shape of waves- it was as if he was standing in a literal ocean of dirt. As far as the eye could see, disassembled skeletons were strewn about. He was still naked- the dirt squelched beneath his feet, as worms, the only living thing to be seen in this desolate landscape, weaved their way through his toes.

He didn't know where he was or why he was there, but he decided to start moving. Slowly, carefully, Naruto picked his way across the landscape, careful not to trip and get a mouthful of dirt and worms. It was tedious work, because some of the "waves" in his way- in fact, a lot of the "waves" in his way- were rather high, and Naruto had to actually pick his way around them. He could not use chakra, probably because he was dead and chakra was the privilege of the living. Suddenly curious, he looked down at his stomach- it seemed the seal was still there. Had the mixed blessing of the Kyuubi followed him into the afterlife?

Hours of walking brought him to what seemed to be the edge of the world, a place where skeletons fell off and logic ended. Because the wasteland ceased to be abruptly at the edge, and skeletons were cut off cleanly where the edge began. It was as if someone cut the world with a great knife, and threw away the other half of it. Beyond the edge there was white nothingness. Just absolutely nothing. Naruto waved his hand over it, and found that there was no air there, either, and no gravity. Just endless nothing.

In this nothing, beyond the edge of the world that Naruto stood on, appeared a figure all of a sudden. Naruto, in surprise, landed on his rear end on a small wave, and continued sitting there as he observed the figure, and the figure observed him.

It looked like the Grim Reaper. It was huge, significantly larger than any human; if Naruto had to guess, it would be about fifteen to twenty feet tall. It had a black robe on that cloaked most of its humanoid body, but there did not seem to be any legs- just arms, and gloves that were limp in such a way that implied that the hands underneath were nothing but bone. In its gloved hands it held a large scythe, an instrument that was black except for the metal ending, which was a pale, reflective red. Its hood was on, and the only thing visible above the shoulder besides the robe was a mask. It was an odd mask, one that looked as if it had been entirely a blank white before someone took a crayon to it and drew a red grinning face on it. It unnerved Naruto in a manner that he had never felt before. In a voice that painted a picture of blood with every word, the figure began to speak

"Hello… Naruto. You seem to have died a good deal before any one of the gods on their foolish "pantheon" intended you to."

The figure laughed, a rasping laugh that sounded like a last breath.

"Too bad that even they cannot control the proceedings of the mortal world… Well, you had a good life, did you not? Are you ready to die, Naruto?"

Naruto practically jumped up.

"No, no, no! I'm not ready to die! I have hopes and dreams and I want to protect my loved ones and help everyone and become great. I don't want to die like this- forgotten by everyone, never achieving any greatness or goals like the Fourth Hokage. This isn't how it was supposed to be!"

The figure laughed again.

"Of course it wasn't. The pantheon had high hopes for you, after all. Allow me to introduce myself, Naruto. My name is Jashin. I am a god, and I can bring you back to the mortal realm."

Naruto's eyes grew wide and he fell to his knees.

"You can?! That's… that's incredible. Can you please?"

Jashin shook his head.

"Did you learn nothing in that world of mortals of yours? Everything has a price. I can bring you back in direct violation of the set of rules that the pantheon imposes on itself. But, I would need to deal with the backlash. I can't just deal with the consequences for free, can I?"

Naruto bowed his head.

"What do you want? My soul? Worship? Maybe starting a cult for you in the Elemental Nations?"

"No, no. I want you to perform a certain ritual… a ritual that I will contact you at the right time so you can perform it. I don't need your worship; you don't have the stomach for it."

Naruto looked up at the god before him.

"You're a god that doesn't mind violating rules; what could you possibly gain from a simple ritual performed by a mortal?"

Jashin almost seemed to smile, judging by the tone of his voice.

"You're smarter than you're given credit for, Naruto. I would not expect you to ask such a question. Suffice to say that this ritual will… allow me certain powers over the other gods. It will allow me to eliminate this rule set that constrains me from doing what I wish. It is a massive ritual, and instead of explaining it to you now and having you forget all of the important details by the time it needs to be done, I will implant the instructions in your head at the time it needs to be performed. Timing, in fact, is everything; should it be done early, it could have… negative repercussions. That's another reason why I won't tell you yet."

Naruto nodded his head.

"What choice do I have? Do you have any more terms?"

"No, the ritual is all I require of you. The nature of your profession, as well as your resurrection by my hand, will ensure that you meet a certain… sacrifice quota. Now, prepare to be awakened back into the mortal world."

* * *

Naruto awoke, and immediately felt that he was not himself. His body felt… odd. He felt its presence, but could not derive sensation from it… he would be hard-pressed to truly describe the feeling. But as his vision returned to him, he detected a much more immediate problem. He could not move a muscle- he couldn't even blink. In fact, he was not sure he could even feel his eyelids anymore. He could not move his eyes to look around, but above him was a ceiling- he knew that much. He was being bathed in what registered to Naruto as a cold light. He stared at the single light bulb above him; his vision, oddly, was not blocked off by sun spots despite staring directly at the bright bulb.

What… what had happened to him? Jashin promised to return him to life, but… this hardly felt like life. He didn't even know whether he was in his own body anymore. He was aware of but could not feel the foreign hands touch his body- as if his nerves had been altered from their original biological functions to merely informative ones. He could not tell what happened to him, and honestly, the more he thought about it, the more he wished he were- No. He did not wish he was dead; he just wanted his regular body back. He still had a lot to accomplish in this life. But for now, all he could do was watch and wait.

A humming broke through his thoughts. It was in a voice he recognized… in fact, it was definitely familiar to him. It was just at the edge of his thoughts…

"Yes, it seems the Kyuubi has been retained in the body… it is a good thing I turned you into a puppet when I did, my boy, else you would have just been another puppet in my collection. Now… now you can be something a little… greater. You can be art, Naruto. You are art, now."

Naruto heard Sasori step back to observe his work.

"Isn't this just much better, child? Yes, I think it is…"

He resumed humming and Naruto's thoughts went directly into despair. He was turned into a puppet. THIS was the resurrection that Jashin had promised? To have his conscious thrust back directly into what remained of his body, to be controlled by this monster as a weapon for the rest of eternity? How did he expect him to perform any ritual when he did not have the autonomy of his body?

Even if he did possess that, he hardly wanted to be a puppet. This wasn't any sort of life- he wasn't even human any more. What could he possibly do as a puppet? Would his friends even accept him anymore? Would the Hidden Leaf? Was he to be nothing more than a blind instrument of murder in the hands of a monster?

But then again, how different was that than being a ninja? Naruto wasn't usually a cynic or a pessimist- he had been accused of excess of the opposite of both many times in his life- but the situation just entirely crushed his spirits. There was literally nothing he could do- no benchmark to reach, no obstacle to climb over. For the first time in his life since he was a child, he was truly helpless. That broke him. He didn't even notice how differently he was thinking.

Ninja were tools. That's what Haku told him, wasn't it? That he was a tool of the government, one of the many kunai thrown in a massive, constant battle between the Hidden Leaf and its enemies. And now, he was a kunai taken by the enemy, reshaped for the twisted adversary's own purposes. He didn't want to be thrown against Konoha. He didn't want to be used against his friends, the people who had shown him kindness. If he was to be a tool, he could at least be given the courtesy of deciding whom would use him. But he was literally an inanimate object now. What choice could he have?

Darkness enveloped Naruto once more.

The next time that Naruto awoke, as his eyes came into focus, he realized he was outside. The air was cool and he was surrounded by a small village populated by old wooden buildings. The sun was shining brightly above his head, and beyond the village, at the edge of his vision, he could see trees. He knew where he was- he was in a small village in Fire Country. Why was he in Fire Country? What was Sasori doing here?

These were all the thoughts of a half-second as he realized whom he was facing. In plain view stood Team Eight in combat positions and with shocked expressions on their faces- Kiba, Hinata, Shino, and Kurenai. Naruto felt an immense amount of pain and regret as he heard Sasori's voice behind him.

"Were you friends with this one? He wasn't very strong. It wasn't a lot of trouble to simply cut off his head in order to kill him, and then turn him into a puppet. And you know what? The Kyuubi is still inside of him, and I know how to access it. I'll demonstrate… once you earn it."

Naruto gauged the reactions of his former friends even as he was sent flying at them, several other puppets in tow. Kiba was openly devastated, his mouth hanging wide open and tears beginning to form in his eyes. With a cry of "you BASTARD!" he leapt into combat against the puppets with Akamaru. Kurenai displayed a stony face- she was clearly suppressing her emotions. But she grabbed her kunai and began casting mid-level ninjutsu in order to stave off the puppets. Shino was visibly shaken- for an Aburame, anyway. His mouth opened slightly for a brief moment, then closed. With an ever-so-slightly shaking hand, he summoned the bugs from his sleeve, and they descended upon the puppet that was going for him.

Hinata… Naruto could not tell what was happening to her. She was very red in the face, and tears were openly streaming down her face. Was she… was she getting angry? She activated the Byakugan and Naruto realized she was the target he was hurtling toward. She dodged the blade coming out of Naruto's hand and performed a spin in order to deflect the toxic gas that came out of his mouth. She closed the distance, and Naruto felt himself performing the hand seals for Shadow Clones. One by one, she disposed of them all. She spun once more when she felt herself getting overwhelmed, then when only Naruto himself remained, she attempted to 64 palms technique- Sasori pulled Naruto back before the attack connected.

Naruto felt himself making Shadow Clones again, and all of them (but not Naruto himself- Sasori was evidently conserving fuel) opened their stomachs to reveal what turned out to be flamethrowers- several powerful cones of flame flew at Hinata. She performed the spin again, and was evidently getting tired because although it barely managed to stave off the flames, the spin was visible slower than before. She had never had an enormous chakra supply- Naruto was surprised that she was capable of three spins altogether.

To her aid came a feral Kiba- he crashed into Naruto's side before Sasori could pull him back and began ripping into the wood. However, Naruto's mouth opened to send a toxic bomb at Kiba at point blank, who was quickly taken out of the action. Naruto tried not to think of what happened to him as he felt the wounds in the wood inflicted by Kiba actually begin to heal as Kyuubi's chakra flooded his body. He felt a chakra cloak cover him and three tails form behind him.

"I think that display was worthy of the Kyuubi's chakra, don't you think?"

Naruto hated Sasori's voice now; the mocking tone was absolutely loathsome. Kurenai and Shino seemed to have shut off the puppets that were sent against them; Sasori seemed to have intentionally sent weaker puppets against them so he would get to show off Naruto. Naruto saw Kurenai attempt a genjutsu, which entirely failed against Sasori. Shino rushed to engage Naruto in close range combat, but Sasori made his puppet create Shadow Clones (all of which showed the signs of Kyuubi's influence- looking at them, it seemed that Kyuubi's chakra changed him in the same way that it changed him when he was alive) and they emitted toxic gas from their mouths, covering a huge area. Then, right into the cloud, they opened up their flame throwers. The gas was set ablaze, setting alight the entire village.

Shino had apparently made a bug clone, and Kurenai seemed to have grabbed Hinata in order to get away, because all three of them were there when Naruto was spun around to face them. Naruto felt himself rush at the three with several Shadow Clones, Rasengans in their hands. Shino covered the first few with insects, popping them before they reached him. However, judging by the cough, he had been hit somewhat by the poisonous gas cloud- Naruto doubted he would survive without immediate medical treatment. Hinata fought the first few clones off, but had to be bailed out by Kurenai when she made a move too slow and a Rasengan nearly made contact. The cost of that was Kurenai getting hit by a Rasengan through the heart. She fell lifeless to the ground.

Naruto cursed his very existence. He did not want to kill his friends- this was much, much worse than being dead. The immediate wave of grief would have made him collapse if he weren't fully under Sasori's control. He only got a glimpse of Kurenai's lifeless eyes as she fell. That image, along with the one of Kiba's body, would haunt him forever.

Sasori did not pause for Naruto's grief. Shino signaled for Hinata to retreat, and sent out what seemed to be his entire colony from his sleeves.

"You think that you can cover her escape? You've got the same martyr complex as every other Konoha ninja, don't you, Aburame? I don't think I'm going to allow witnesses, though."

Faster than Shino could track, Naruto Body Flickered right behind Hinata and impaled her through the heart with his arm blade. As he removed her from the blade, she managed to turn around for one last look at Naruto with blood leaking out of her mouth. She fell with a strangely calm look on her face, staring right at Naruto the entire time. As if she knew he was there. As if… she was alright with dying at his hands.

Naruto's mind blanked out from grief after that.

* * *

He found himself in a sewer, easily recognizing it for where the Kyuubi's cage was located. However, while the shape was familiar, everything else was… wrong. Everything was wooden- the walls, the floor. There was no liquid down the sewer's center line. It was a dark wood, Naruto absentmindedly identified it as mahogany before automatically turning and going toward where he knew the Kyuubi's cage would be. It seemed he had autonomy here, though he was still a puppet.

While he walked, he examined the body's capabilities. He had a flamethrower in his stomach- a function he dared not activate among the wooden walls of the interior. From his mouth he could spit balls of poison. From his hands he could extend blades, and he could make his neck spin around to send a wave of needles all around- the needles were probably poisoned. His shoulders had built in kunai launchers. His knees had extendable blades, and his feet had small senbon launchers that could be lifted on command in order to fire. He was quite… filled with weaponry. It was odd that Naruto did not feel any weight in walking, though upon reflection, he realized it was because his strength had greatly increased, as well.

As soon as he finished examining his body, the thoughts of the battle he had just had- or was still having, either or- haunted him. The shocked look on Kiba's face as the poison hit, the determined look on Kurenai's face as she passed away… and the peaceful look on Hinata's face, as if it was alright that Naruto killed her. That last part absolutely destroyed him. How could such a timid soul be so angry for him, to exhaust herself attempting to fight his shell, and to be just so… peaceful on dying… it was inconceivable for him. He just… he was wracked with guilt to a degree that he had not ever been before. He wanted to dash himself against a sharp object, to end his own life- something he would have done, if he thought that it would do anything inside his mind.

Finally, Naruto arrived at the Kyuubi's cage. The seal was wooden, the cage was wooden- the Kyuubi, as it thrust its face against the cage, was still its own self. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief at that (or would have, if he could still breathe), though he did not know why he had such an urge. The Kyuubi examined its surroundings, then roared at Naruto:

"**WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?**"

Naruto bowed his head before the Tailed Beast in front of him.

"I… I died and-"

"**I REALIZE THAT, FOOL. I WAS THERE WHEN YOU DIED, AND I EXPECTED TO CEASE EXISTING, TO BE REPLACED BY A KYUUBI WITH A DIFFERENT MIND IN SEVERAL YEARS, WHEN YOUR EMPTY HEAD WAS SEPARATED FROM YOUR PUNY BODY. BUT NOW I AM AWAKE AGAIN, AND EVERYTHING IS WOODEN. AND MY HOST IS A FILTHY AUTOMATON. NOT THAT I AM COMPLAINING THAT I AM STILL ALIVE… BUT WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?**"

"I… I was floating down some sort of river, and a hand grabbed me out of nowhere. I was taken to a black wasteland, and talked to a god called Jashin. He… he gave me a second chance. I was to be reborn, and to perform some sort of ritual at some point in my life. But I awoke to find that I had been turned into a puppet. Can you help me, Kyuubi? I don't want to spend my life killing my friends…"

The Kyuubi laughed, a great, malicious laugh that rang in Naruto's head long after the conversation was over.

"**YOU DID WHAT? I MAY NOT KNOW MUCH OF THE FATE OF MORTALS AFTER THEIR INSIGNIFICANT DEATHS, BUT JASHIN IS ANOTHER STORY. YOU MADE A DEAL WITH HIM? YOU'RE A FOOL. YOU DON'T HAVE ANYWHERE NEAR THE STOMACH NECESSARY FOR ONE OF HIS "DEALS." BUT IF IT IS DEATH YOU SEEK, JUST PULL OFF THE SEAL.**"

Naruto mulled over this for a moment, then with trembling hands, he went to pull off the seal. His wrist was suddenly grabbed by a human hand. He looked up and saw the Fourth Hokage.

"Naruto, my son, is that you? What… what happened to you? Who did this to you?!"

Naruto stepped back a few steps in shock. Although he was unable to express himself with his face, his voice tone was more than adequate for conveying his immense surprise.

"You're… you're my father?"

Minato smiled sadly and nodded.

"I'm your father, Naruto. It was my hope that I would never have to use this function of the seal, that you would never lose hope to the point where you thought of releasing the Kyuubi. I never expected it to be when you are so young. I care deeply for you, Naruto, and I had hoped the village would treat you as a hero when I sacrificed my life to seal the Kyuubi inside of you. Why are you… how are you a puppet? What happened to you, son?"

Naruto expected to feel anger at having the knowledge that his own father sealed the Kyuubi inside of him, but given the circumstances, he felt nothing. He had lots of questions for his father, but he decided to explain his situation first. He did so very briefly, repeating what he told the Kyuubi after explaining his mission to save Gaara and mentioning the battle that he had just participated in. Minato was in shock, it was obvious from his expression.

"Jashin… you made a pact with Jashin? That… I can't believe you did that, Naruto. Jashin is a god of death, of mass murder- his followers slaughter innocent civilians and ninja alike as sacrifices. Whatever ritual he asked you to perform… just know what you're getting into, alright? I'm glad you're alive, you're destined for greater things, Naruto. I know you'll find a way to regain your humanity. Your mother always found a way, and you seem to be just like her. Don't feel guilty for the deaths of the people that Sasori makes you kill. Just make the bastard pay when you regain your autonomy… goodbye, son, my time is up. Your mother is coming, though."

With that, Minato faded away. Naruto spun around to find that a gorgeous red-haired woman approached him. This… this was his mother. Naruto could only watch as she approached him with tears in her eyes. She approached him and hugged his wooden body, breaking down in tears.

"Naruto, Naruto, Naruto… what happened to you?"

Naruto repeated what he told Minato, along with what Minato had told him. Kushina listened intently, then ended the hug and got up.

"My first instinct was to smack you for trying to tear away the seal… but I couldn't do anything but cry upon seeing you. I'm so sorry, Naruto, I never wanted anything like this for you. I wanted you to be hailed as a hero by the village, to live a long and fulfilling life, to accomplish what you wanted to and save the world every time it was threatened. Even before you were born, I felt that you were special, you know. But… the world is harsh, and it killed you. Now you're in a deal with Jashin, of all beings, and you're a puppet, of all things. I know you can pull through this. I feel it in my heart. Call it mother's pride, but I know you can still put your life in order… you can still accomplish great things. Just don't give up, Naruto. Never give up."

Naruto would have cried if he could still cry. He embraced his mother, even as she faded away. He fell to his knees after she was gone, feeling more empty than he ever had before. The sewer faded to black, and so did his consciousness.

* * *

The next time Naruto regained consciousness, he was alongside the Third Kazekage puppet- the puppet's green robe filled his vision as soon as he regained it. Soon, he was pointed toward the enemy. Before examining the enemy, though, Naruto quickly took in his surroundings.

He was on a road in a forest of some kind, and this time it was during the night. The road itself was old and cracked, and the forest around it seemed forbidding and ominous. A half-moon shined above in the starry night sky. Upon determining that he could not determine where he was from his surroundings, Naruto took to examining his adversaries.

The two men were in Akatsuki robes. One was a very tanned, tall man with green eyes that had a veil covering his mouth. With him stood five very odd creatures, a solid black except for the masks that covered their… faces? They looked fairly intimidating. Sharp threads extended both from the man and the creatures, apparently used as weaponry. The other was a silver-haired young man with a large scythe-like weapon in his hands. Other than the weapon, there seemed to be nothing unusual about him. The tanned man spoke.

"You turned the jinchuuriki into a puppet? You fool, what use is he without the Kyuubi? Was that worth betraying the most powerful organization in the world?"

In response, Naruto felt Kyuubi's chakra course through him. He felt the familiar three tails extend behind him, and the chakra cloak cover him.

"Impressive. We will be collecting that puppet, now, after we kill you."

Sasori spoke in an even voice.

"I'd like to see you try."

Suddenly, one of the beasts opened its mouth, sending a wave of fire at Sasori. Another opened its mouth and sent wind out, greatly increasing the size of the wave of fire. Iron sand poured out of the mouth of the puppet of the Third Kazekage, and made a shield around Sasori and his puppets. As soon as the wall was down, a scythe was sent flying at Sasori; Sasori swatted it aside. The scythe wielder pulled it back, and charged. He was met with a flamethrower that incinerated him, but despite burns on the man's body, he kept going. Naruto was sent at him with a Rasengan and several Shadow Clones in tow. Naruto could only assume that the Third Kazekage puppet and the Iron Sand was busy fighting the tanned man.

The silver-haired man was quite skilled with his scythe in close combat, keeping Naruto at a range where the puppet could not reach him with the Rasengan or even the extendable blade. He had to wonder why Sasori did not have him use his poisonous gas or weaponry, but he got his answer when Sasori through Naruto managed to nick the enemy scythe user. The man did not even stumble at the poison- he kept fighting. The venom seemed to have no effect on him.

Eventually, though, the man began to get overwhelmed by Naruto's superior speed. Naruto's extendable arm blade cut off the enemy's hand that was holding the scythe, and the silver-haired man cursed vehemently. He took a Kyuubi-empowered Rasengan to the face in the next moment, his head separating from his body from the extreme force. He screamed:

"Kakuzu, you bastard, make yourself useful and PUT MY HEAD BACK ON!"

The reply came instantaneously:

"Silence, fool. I'm busy fighting. Maybe you should have taken your fight a little more seriously."

As the silver-haired man busied himself cursing out his partner, Naruto was sent off to fight the man apparently called Kakuzu, and quickly found that it was a much more difficult fight than the one against the scythe-wielder. The tanned Akatsuki member, along with his creatures, wielded a variety of elemental ninjutsu that easily wiped out Shadow Clones and would have easily destroyed Naruto through attrition if he did not have the healing factor from the Kyuubi and the defense from the chakra cloak. The Third Kazekage puppet, for its part, was already badly damaged; a moment later, Sasori pulled it back behind him to use it purely for personal defense. He opened up a slot on his chest, and pulled out a scroll from which a veritable stream of puppets came out.

"You came this far, Kakuzu. Perhaps I should show you my ultimate technique."

Kakuzu's eyes narrowed, even as he prepared another fire technique to try and wipe out many of the puppets at once. Naruto, for his part, felt Sasori drawing upon more and more of the Kyuubi's chakra. In fact, he felt another tail forming behind him, and the chakra cloak intensified to the point where it covered him in a thick red layer. He had no idea what he looked like, but what he did know was that Sasori was having trouble controlling him; apparently, he could only make very small movements. His body parts only twitched in response. He watched Kakuzu's threads quickly stitch together the silver-haired man:

"Hidan, go all out. Our survival is at stake now."

The silver haired man drew a circle with his foot on the ground, and purple flames burned in the area where he traced. Kakuzu's creatures barely staved off Sasori's puppets with a constant ninjutsu barrage while Hidan did this. Naruto felt a pressure forming in his mouth; just as a strange design appeared over Hidan's skin, making his skin completely white with a black skeleton design on his face and chest, he opened his mouth against his will and sent out a huge green and red ball of energy.

Kakuzu and his creatures attempted to jump out of the way, but three of the creatures were not so lucky as the ensuing green explosion enveloped them. Kakuzu uncharacteristically cursed as he landed. Hidan, for his part, swung his scythe in a broad pattern in midair, each swing leaving some sort of dark energy that hung in the air for a few seconds. He thus protected himself from the explosion, absorbing the blow with whatever substance his scythe left behind. The Tailed Beast Ball seemed to have mixed somehow with the poisonous gas in his throat, leaving behind a residue that ate away at everything in the location. Hidan remained unfazed in his circle, however. Naruto felt the strings as they attempted to make him move, but it was to no avail. Regardless, however, he felt the same buildup of energy in his mouth.

Before Sasori could get it off, though, an Earth Dragon crashed into Naruto directly; it did not pierce through his chakra cloak. Several piercing winds followed, slicing through many of Sasori's other puppets but failing to harm Naruto. Kakuzu decided to evacuate post haste as he saw another ball of energy escape Naruto's mouth, burrowing deep underground with the help of one of the creatures. Hidan, on the other hand, was busy fighting off the vast majority of Sasori's other puppets; he felled each in one stroke, easily disposing of the majority. Even explosive tags barely harmed him, leaving but small cuts in his skin. He did not step out of the circle, however. Hidan made a fist and pointed it directly toward Sasori- a giant black hand, similar to the one that grabbed Naruto in the afterlife, extended toward him. Sasori managed to dodge, but the hand followed him. However, it was then that Naruto's second Tailed Beast Ball escaped his mouth.

Hidan had to cancel his Hand of Jashin technique and build up the protective layer of black energy again as the explosive ball reached him. Kakuzu popped out of the ground next to Sasori and nearly stabbed the cylinder at the center of Sasori's stomach with his threads, but Sasori jumped up in a pseudo flight. Unfortunately for him, Kakuzu was prepared for that. He sent slicing winds from one of his creatures toward Sasori, and the cylinder quickly popped out and switched into a new Sasori puppet from one of the scrolls as the old one was destroyed.

Kakuzu smirked as he realized his assumption about Sasori's weakness was correct. He made a spear of Earth and sent it hurtling toward Sasori's cylinder. Sasori lessened Naruto's flow of Nine-Tails chakra to three tails, and made him jump to absorb the blow- which he did, at the cost of it partially piercing his stomach. Drawing on his other puppets, Kakuzu was soon once again occupied with keeping them back. As Naruto's stomach healed, he was sent to attack Hidan, who had once again recovered and had just sent out the Hand of Jashin. Naruto was grabbed midair by the hand, which squeezed him and smashed him into the ground. Retracting the hand, Hidan threw out his scythe, impaling Naruto through the throat. Naruto was suddenly very grateful that he could not feel any pain.

Dragging the puppet to himself despite Sasori's best efforts, Hidan did not count on the huge block of iron sand descending upon him from behind. It hit him directly, knocking him out of his circle. His transformation faded, leaving him with his natural skin tone. Hidan rushed to get back into the circle, but was interrupted by Sasori sending Naruto out to intercept him. A repeat of the earlier skirmish almost happened, but Hidan, wiser to Naruto's speed and strength this time, knocked him away with the flat of his scythe, and quickly drew another circle on the ground. His transformation repeated, Hidan was about to grab the Naruto puppet again, before the chakra strings around it were finally cut.

At the cost of his final creature, Kakuzu had managed to sneak a kunai into the cylinder that apparently had contained Sasori's internal organs, and as soon as Sasori paused from that, delivered a cutting blade of wind to follow up into the cylinder. It exploded in gore, and the Sasori puppet fell to the ground lifeless.

Naruto suddenly found himself able to move. Slowly, at first, twitching a few fingers only, then gaining autonomy of his arms and feet and head, Naruto gingerly picked himself up from the ground. Hidan, who had gone over to see if he could salvage any components for a sacrifice from Sasori, did not notice at first. But Kakuzu saw him immediately, and looked over in confusion at the defeated Sasori. Finding him definitely quite dead, Kakuzu absorbed the heart from his creature and cautiously moved toward Naruto.

Naruto, facing him, saw this. He spoke in a croaking voice, still getting used to his own autonomous bodily functions as a puppet:

"You… you bastards will never get the Kyuubi. Not while I still li- stand."

Kakuzu, clearly injured from the battle, laughed painfully.

"What in the world is going on? One of Sasori's puppets, walking and talking on its own. Are any of the other puppets doing this? Hidan?"

Hidan slowly turned around, and noticed something very odd and new about Naruto immediately. On his forehead was engraved the symbol of Jashin, where it clearly was not before. A lot of thoughts went through Hidan's head at once, and coming to a sudden conclusion, he cocked his head slightly to the right and smiled.

"Say, Kakuzu… do you see that symbol on that talking puppet's head?"

Kakuzu spun around at the almost playful tone of voice of his detested "partner."

"What is that supposed to mean."

"Well, it means," said Hidan as he knelt to the ground, picked up some blood with his finger, and licked it, "that you need to die."

Drawing a circle with his feet again, Hidan's skin turned black with a white skeletal pattern before Kakuzu could react. Kakuzu's eyes widened considerably.

"Hidan, you idiot, what are you do-"

Here his question was stopped, as Hidan drop a small metal spike through his own heart, killing Kakuzu instantly. As Kakuzu's lifeless body fell to the ground, Hidan confidently cancelled the transformation and stepped out of the circle, heading toward Naruto with his hand outstretched.

Naruto's head spun and he did not know what to do. He stood frozen for the fifteen seconds it took Hidan to reach him, and just stared at the outstretched hand.

"Well, what are you waiting for, Brother? Jashin clearly has some greater will for you. I think it is only right that I ditch that Akatsuki crap and travel with you in your murderous sprees."

Naruto opened his mouth and closed it. Then he uttered:

"I'm… I'm not a murderer, I'm just a ninja of the Hidden Leaf."

Hidan understood immediately.

"Ahh… I see how it is."

With a wink and a nod, Hidan passed Naruto and patted him on the back, leaving him to his own devices. Naruto didn't know what to think. That Akatsuki member helped him because of his association with Jashin; more importantly and surprisingly, Naruto didn't attack him. For whatever reason, whether it was gratitude or confusion, Naruto did not try to rip the Akatsuki member limb from limb- then again, it seemed like the man had just betrayed Akatsuki. Of course, he had also mentioned "murderous sprees," so perhaps it was wrong of Naruto nonetheless.

Confused morally, Naruto was about to head in a random direction away from Hidan's path when he realized that Sasori's corpse- along with all of his sealing scrolls- was lying on the ground only a short distance away. Naruto hurriedly walked over, and picked the scrolls over for their contents. Two of them contained another hundred human puppets, so the living puppet had to spend the next twenty minutes sealing them back inside after finding this out. Another scrolls contained a plethora of notes on the subject of puppeteering, and especially on human puppets. He hoped that there would be some sort of clue in there for how he could regain his humanity- his state of mind was such that he did not stop to think about how unlikely that was. Another scroll contained more Sasori puppets; that was the only one that Naruto even contemplated discarding, but decided that salvaging them for parts was more prudent.

The last scroll Naruto found himself unable to open using his blood. Thinking for a few minutes, he realized that Sasori's blood was still on the ground; scooping some up with his finger, he tried again using Sasori's blood. It worked. The scroll opened, and out fell another assortment of notes. Briefly looking over them, Naruto soon found that these notes were not like the others. In them was described a number of theoretical procedures related to puppeteering- including, he noticed, some conjectures of what a living puppet would need to function, and the transplant of a human mind into a puppet. Beyond those pages was a detailed procedure for how Sasori turned himself into a puppet, borrowing some of the elements from both theories described before. Flipping back over the notes one last time, Naruto sealed them back up.

Thoughts and plans relating to regaining his humanity whirling in his head, Naruto used an enclosed map and compass to determine his position and head in the direction of Konoha.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Thank you for the****encouragement.**

* * *

Day was just breaking over head as Naruto arrived at Hidden Leaf Village. With his new puppet body, Naruto did not need rest, food, or water, so despite being a quite a ways from Konoha, it only took him two days to reach the place. Although it was a relatively hot day, the temperature did not bother the living puppet. These advantages were enormous for a ninja, and somewhere in the back of his mind, Naruto acknowledged that. They made no substitute for his flesh and blood, however, and his determination to regain it grew none the weaker. It just felt… entirely wrong to be like this. Although the thought did occur to him many times during the trip that perhaps it was a matter of habit, he dismissed it quickly. He didn't want to be a puppet. He wanted to be human.

The village was, unsurprisingly, just the way he remembered it from the outside: large, old walls surrounded by trees. At the gate stood the two chuunin that normally manned the entrance. For the life of him, Naruto couldn't remember their names. As the genin approached, one of the guards quickly disappeared into the gates and the other drew a kunai. Too late, Naruto realized that he probably at least should have thrown up a Henge as he approached. His appearance, wooden and twisted as it was, was rather threatening- especially with the lack of a Konoha headband.

Of course, Naruto's appearance was easily recognizable throughout the village, and as Naruto stopped some distance away from the gate and raised up his hands to indicate that he meant no harm, the chuunin spoke with a surprised and disgusted voice:

"...Naruto? Is that you?"

Naruto nodded and replied:

"Yes, it's me. It's… a long story. Can I see Granny?"

The chuunin wavered uncertainly.

"Just wait for Izumo to come back. And stay where you are."

Naruto patiently waited outside of the gates for the return of Izumo. He did not have to wait long; it only took another fifteen seconds for Izumo to reappear with two ANBU members in tow. The ANBU members had their weapons drawn. One of them spoke up in a commanding female voice:

"You are now under the investigation of Konohagakure. Do not resist or violent force will be utilized."

Naruto would have grimaced if that were possible for him. His voice tone adequately revealed his feelings, however.

"Please, it's just me… Naruto. Can I see the Hokage? I'm not a threat, I can explain everything..."

The ANBU member shook her head.

"Orders are to investigate and interrogate you. You will come with us; I suggest you do it peacefully."

Bowing his head, Naruto acceded to the demand. The two ANBU members Body Flickered in front of Naruto and quickly applied a chakra suppression seal to his forehead. That was followed by handcuffs, and Naruto was silently led through the village gates. He did not look at the chuunin as he passed them.

Naruto tried to keep his head clear of thoughts as he saw his familiar village for the second time after coming back from his training trip with Jiraiya. It proved to be a futile task, as he could not help but feel that the buildings and people were hostile to him somehow. The people around him were human. He did not belong here anymore; he was not human. He felt, of course, that it was his home on some level; but on another, he felt like a complete stranger. It was an awful feeling, and the handcuffs did not help to alleviate the feeling of alienation. It was the way that people looked at him that truly got to him, though. Surprise, disgust, and fear were the emotions that openly flashed on the faces of civilians; on the way, he walked past his favorite ramen stand. Teuchi and Ayame just looked at him with scared eyes as he walked past. Whether that was from pity for him or from fear, he could not tell. It crushed his heart regardless, because he couldn't shake the feeling that he would not be accepted back there anymore. It wasn't as if he would even have an excuse to visit the ramen stand anymore.

Other than those two, Naruto did not encounter anybody else that he knew as he passed through the village. He was thankful for that; he could not bear another pair of eyes like those of Teuchi and Ayame from anybody else he knew right now. He realized where he was being taken only when the building was already in sight; it was the Torture and Interrogation Department. Naruto spoke again to his captors:

"I'm not an enemy to the village, please, I don't need to be here…"

The ANBU ignored him entirely as he was walked inside. Naruto had never been inside this particular building before; he examined his surroundings with a mixture of curiousity and fear. The walls were a solid grey, and there were many doors that were probably to various offices, but all of them were closed. The lighting fixtures were naked lightbulbs sporadically placed, giving off a harsh light. Soon, they descended down a flight of stairs and were brought to a cell. Naruto went inside after a prod from an ANBU member. The cell was locked and the ANBU members left.

For several minutes, Naruto was left to his thoughts. He still had a strong desire to protect the village and be acknowledged by its inhabitants, but a part of him felt like it was not his home anymore. That thought scared him- if Konoha was not his home, he did not have a home anywhere. He did not have a purpose, besides serving his village and friends. Right now, in captivity, deprived of his humanity and with the blood of Konoha ninja on his hands, all of that was cast into serious doubt. Naruto's personality had always been suited to dealing with hardship; he had evolved a thick skin and a "never-say-die" attitude. But now, with his very purpose thrown into question, it was difficult to say for certain that he would be able to endure. He stood on the brink of utter despair.

A medical ninja came and went out of the cell; he treated Naruto with absolute disgust and only went through the absolutely minimum motions in order to confirm his vitals. The medical ninja left as quickly as he came in. Naruto did not try to talk to him at all, one glance at the face of the doctor being enough to confirm that he would not get any helpful conversation out of him. He got some grim vindication out of the surprise on his face when he presumable realized Naruto was actually a puppet.

Then, a few minutes later, into the room came Inoichi. His face was completely emotionless as he opened the cell and signaled Naruto to follow him. Reluctantly, Naruto got up and followed the interrogator to a plain room. In the middle of it stood a table and two chairs. The table had a piece of paper and a pencil, and one chair had restraints on it, along with chakra suppression seals, while the other was normal. It wasn't hard to guess which one Naruto would be sitting in. Inoichi wordlessly gestured for Naruto to take a seat, and the prisoner complied. After fastening the restraints on the chair, Ibiki took a seat of his own and began the interrogation.

"I don't know who you are. You say you are Naruto, and from what I've been told, you act like him as well. But I'm sure you realize that you will not be taken at your word; not only has the last mission report said that Naruto was captured and presumed dead, your entire body is a puppet. You had said that you have an explanation. I want to hear it before we continue."

Naruto explained with some detail all of the events that had happened to him since he stayed to fight Sasori with Chiyo. He was reluctant to describe his deal with Jashin, but he did it nonetheless- he wanted to put the whole truth on the table for his village. It was no use lying when the information would come out anyway; regardless, he did not have an adequate excuse for his resurrection besides. Inoichi wrote down quickly all that Naruto said, often asking him to slow down and repeat certain parts.

"Very well," Inoichi said after Naruto had finished. "Frankly, while that is as likely explanation as any other as to why you are literally a living puppet. Inoichi will be with you shortly. But I have orders to scour your mind, as well. Do not resist, or it will be assumed you are lying as to your entire story."

Naruto tried his hardest to relax as Inoichi entered his mind. They arrived together in the wooden sewer.

"Now, you said you still had the Kyuubi sealed up. Can you show me where it is?"

Naruto nodded and silently led the way to the Kyuubi's cage. The beast, seeing Inoichi, growled.

"**HUMAN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY VESSEL'S MIND?**"

Inoichi stumbled back a bit despite himself, but did not reply to the Nine-Tails. Instead, he turned to Naruto, and said:

"I will now confirm your memories. Your mind might do some strange things while I perform this task; be warned."

With that, Inoichi turned around and left in a different direction in the sewer. Naruto made as if to follow him, but was stopped by the Kyuubi's voice.

"**I DO NOT APPRECIATE YOU TAKING VISITORS IN TO SEE ME AS IF I AM SOME SORT OF CIRCUS ATTRACTION. DO THIS LITTLE TRICK AGAIN AND I WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER.**"

Naruto turned around.

"I'm sorry, Kyuubi, but I had no choice…"

Suddenly, Naruto was not in his mind next the Kyuubi's cage, but again on the table in which he first awoke after being… reborn. This time, however, he was lying with his head on its side, and he could see the rest of the room on the right, albeit blurrily.

It was a large room. It was just like the interior of the Torture and Interrogation Department, actually, especially the room he was currently in in the real world. The crucial difference was the large amount of various puppet building materials strewn about the room- saws, various contraptions, seals, wood, and the like. Sasori stood at the center of the room, and three puppets laid in various positions on the ground. A corpse was currently on a small table where Sasori was working, removing the organs.

As the image came into focus, Naruto realized that the three puppets on the ground were Shino, Kiba, and Kurenai. He tried to gasp in surprise and horror by reflex- but of course, nothing came out and his mouth did not move. On the table where Sasori was operating lay the grisly, bloody corpse of Hinata. Naruto felt an immense wave of guilt wash over him, and he could only stare in paralyzed horror at the former Konoha nin. Suddenly, Kurenai's head turned over to face him, and began speaking in her old voice. The macabre way her lips moved in her puppet form made Naruto sick.

"You traitor. You murderer. You killed all of us. Why didn't you stop yourself? Why couldn't you stop yourself? You're just as bad as the Kyuubi. You're a monster."

Soon, Kiba's head turned over as well.

"I thought you were my friend Naruto. We competed and we fought and we were friendly. I was just beginning to accept you. Why did you do this to me? Why did you kill me? I had a life ahead of me. I have family and friends that grieve for me. Why are you such a monster?"

Shino's puppet body followed suit.

"You'll never be more than what you are, Naruto: A failure and a monster, a traitor and a murderer. You deserved to die."

Finally, Hinata's head turned over even as Sasori extracted another fleshy, pulpy organ from her body. Her face was deathly pale and she had no eyes.

"I was willing to die for you, Naruto. And you… you just went and killed me. I didn't want to die. I was just setting the Hyuuga clan on the right track; I had a bright and hopeful future. You stole all of that away from me. I don't ask why you betrayed us. I know why you did, and I knew you were a monster all along. You should have stayed dead."

Naruto screamed, a wordless, motionless scream that turned into a piercing mental scream as he was back in the Kyuubi's cage to the sound of the Tailed Beast's laughter. Then it was a real scream, as he was back in the interrogation chair, with Inoichi just lifting his head. He ignored Naruto's scream as he said:

"I have what I needed to know. The Hokage will be receiving my report momentarily; I expect she will want to meet with you."

Naruto wasn't listening. He was definitely conscious, but his entire body went limp and his mind went blank.

* * *

It was several hours before Naruto came out of his trance-like state. His tortured memories did not come back to him immediately; instead, he recalled all of them painfully, one by one. His mind was in a state of utter disrepair; he had little recognition of what he was doing and thinking, though he was somewhat aware of being in his apartment on his bed. He really and truly did not want to think about what pseudo-memory he had just lived through in his mind. That was probably the worst experience of his life thus far- worse than dying, worse than being forced to kill his teammates against his will. Only a few words were spoken to him, yet they rang constantly in his head. It was mental torture of the worst kind.

It was only when the doorbell rang that Naruto actually got out of bed. He uncaringly threw himself out of bed and opened the door to find an ANBU member- the same one that had escorted him through the village and spoke to him. She spoke emotionlessly:

"The Lady Hokage requests your presence at the Hokage Tower immediately."

Then the ninja Body Flickered out, and Naruto was left staring out of an open door. He stumbled out of his apartment, not bothering to lock or even close the door in his current state. He went outside, and paid little attention to the looks he was given, so absorbed he was in his own thoughts. Soon he arrived at the Hokage Tower and passed through security.

He paused outside of the door to the Hokage's office, his hand almost at the handle. What was Tsunade going to say? What was she going to think? What… what was going to happen to him? In what seemed like an eternity ago, Naruto would have had faith in Tsunade's faith in him. But now, he was no longer sure of anything. His innocence, the innocence he had somehow managed to preserve in a world of death and murder, was itself dead. It died alongside his humanity, the thought occurred to him.

With these thoughts, Naruto entered the Hokage's office, but did not even look at Tsunade as she began to speak.

"Naruto, I was given the full report by Inoichi. I'm… sorry, for what it's worth. You are still a ninja of Konoha, do you understand? You are not responsible for Sasori's killings. Look at me, Naruto."

Naruto reluctantly raised his head.

"You are somewhere between alive and dead, somewhere between puppet and human. I don't know how others will treat you, but as long as I'm here, know that there's one person who knows that you're the same person that's just more scarred. Now, given a report we found on you about Sasori meeting a spy at the Tenchi Bridge, you will be sent out immediately with Team Kakashi to investigate the meeting. It is my hope that spending more field hours with your teammates will have a therapeutic effect on you. Be at the gates at 6 AM tomorrow morning, and head over to the training ground you first met Team 7 on now to meet your new team. Here's a headband. Dismissed."

Although Tsunade's words were kind, Naruto could not help but feel as he left that she was being as brief with him as possible, that she did not really want to talk to him. That suspicion, at first, did not bother him much. However, it grew in size and certainty as he exited the Hokage tower in search of the training grounds, and eventually he grew convinced that she was not sincere in her words. That did not help his growing doubts about his very purpose of existence, now.

The people around him were definitely afraid of him now. People avoided him, people looked at him with scared glances- it was worse than even in his childhood, when people merely avoided his presence. The feeling that he did not belong only grew. Soon, though, he saw Team Asuma in the distance, and felt a rush of relief despite himself. He rushed to them, waving his hand.

However, Team Asuma did not take his arrival very well. Choji stopped eating and stared in open-mouthed shock, Ino recoiled in horror, Shikamaru looked like he saw a ghost, and Asuma merely stopped along with everyone else, not showing his surprise.

"Hey guys, it's me, Naruto… how've you guys been?"

Ino was the first to speak.

"What the hell, Naruto? You aren't even human anymore! What's wrong with you?!"

Naruto was rather taken aback at that response, although after a momentary reflection he realized that he should have expected it. What really gave him pause was that no one stood up for him; rather, by the faces of Ino's teammates, it almost seemed like they agreed with her. Shikamaru spoke up.

"Naruto… I think it is best if you get wherever you are going."

With that, he began walking, and the rest of Team Asuma soon followed suit. Naruto followed them with his eyes until they turned the corner, getting out of his view. Feeling betrayed and even more melancholy now, he walked until he reached the training ground. There stood the rest of his team, apparently waiting for him. There were three of them; Sakura, a pale boy he did not recognize, and a brown-haired, stony-faced adult he did not recognize. The adult stepped forward.

"Welcome, Naruto, to Team Kakashi. I will be your team leader until Kakashi is admitted out of the hospital and judged to be combat-worthy again. For now, I would like to introduce our team and perform a team exercise in lieu of the mission tomorrow. I'll begin. My name is Yamato; I am a user of Wood Release. I was transferred here from ANBU specifically for this assignment as a fill in for Kakashi. Who wants to go next?"

Sakura could not tear her eyes off of Naruto, so the pale boy spoke up.

"My name is Sai. I like to draw, and use my drawings in combat."

There was a momentary pause where everyone expected him to say more but, Sai was silent. Sakura reluctantly raised her voice.

"My name is Sakura, and I'm training to become a medic-nin under Lady Hokage. I like… flowers, and training, and getting stronger. I also like healing people, and saving lives instead of ending them. I have a temper, so don't get on my bad side."

With the last sentence, she sent an angry glance at Sai, who seemed to completely ignore it. Naruto, seeing that he was the last one who hadn't spoken, said:

"My name is Naruto… I like training, and I want to become Hokage. I primarily use the Shadow Clone Jutsu and the Rasengan in combat. I… I used to like ramen, and I want to become human again."

That last part was said hurriedly, in a choke voice. Sakura's eyes seemed to soften for a moment before reverting to their previous ambivalent state, but Naruto caught the change and allowed himself to bask in it for a moment. Yamato then said:

"Alright, let's begin the team training exercise. I don't want to exhaust you too much before the trip, but it will be some time before we get there, so I will ask you to use some chakra. I want you all to come up with a plan to subdue me non lethally, and then we will test it out. This exercise will give you guys a handle on each other's abilities as well as decision-making processes. Ideally, your experience here will assist you on the mission we are about to undertake."

With that, Yamato gave a time limit of a couple minutes and disappeared from view. Sakura was the first to speak.

"So… I guess we have to catch him, don't we? Does anyone have any ideas?"

Sai spoke up next.

"I think that Ugly here should engage him in direct combat, while Wood-face supports her with Shadow Clones. We can set it up so Wood-face's clones come from a certain direction, making our leader come to fight him there. I will set up a trap at the location."

For his use of the nickname, Sakura smacked Sai upside the head, sending him to the ground.

"I told you not to call me that!"

Naruto then spoke up quietly, which made Sakura stare at him in surprise.

"Please, Sai, just… call me Naruto."

Sai cocked his head to the side and made a terribly fake smile.

"But you're Wood-face."

Naruto was silent to that, and Sakura looked at him worriedly but did not say anything. After a few more minutes of discussion and elaboration on their plan and its alternatives, the trio was ready to go. Yamato Body Flickered to the center of the training ground, and signaled for his team to come and get him. True to the plan, Sakura charged him outright to engage him in taijutsu.

Yamato had other plans, however, and put his hand to the ground to send a wave of wood at Sakura. Sakura jumped over it, but Yamato sent out a long piece of wood from his hand, hitting her in midair where she did not have maneuverability to dodge. Naruto's clones came shortly after, attempting to engage the jounin in taijutsu as well. Yamato easily disposed of the first three with two more sharp blocks of wood from his palms. Naruto dared not use the poisoned tools in his inventory, because he knew that if he hit he would likely send his team leader to the hospital the day before the mission. He had the antidote handy, but it would still weaken any victims of it. He stuck to simply taijutsu, instead.

Sakura, recovering from the blow, took a moment to heal herself before charging back into combat. Yamato sent another wave of wood at her, but she managed to dodge to the side instead, enabling her to dodge the following block of wood from Yamato's palm. She closed the distance, and Yamato made a barrier of wood- which Sakura promptly smashed. But when she did, the Wood Style user was no longer behind it. She quickly jumped as hands came out from under her to pull her into the Underground Decapitation technique. Another Yamato took advantage of her midair position to send another block of wood from his palm, and hit. As she landed, Yamato was interrupted in his handseals for the Wood Prison technique by Naruto's clones. They opened a slot in their stomachs for flamethrowers, so Yamato had to create another wooden barrier instead to buy him some time for escape.

Sakura detected him this time as he escaped, and seeing an opportunity, slammed the ground with her fist. She sent a shockwave toward where Yamato was hiding, forcing the jounin to dodge in the direction of the trap. A pair of snakes that looked like they were drawn suddenly grabbed him by the ankles, forcing Yamato to destroy them with wood from his palms. As he did this, though, a similarly drawn lion tackled him to the ground, taking advantage of his lack of ability to dodge. Although the lion dissolved into ink when Yamato took a kunai to it, several more snakes bound his wrists and ankles to the ground. The jounin barked out an order, and the snakes released. He stood up and said:

"That's about as much as I was expecting, I doubt any of you have techniques to bind me any better than that on the spot. Let's leave it at that. Now, to review: Naruto, you did an acceptable job of distracting me with your clones, although you did little more than that. I know you have the Rasengan, though, and refrained from using that on a target you needed to capture. Good work."

Naruto nodded, and said:

"I also have poisoned weaponry that I refrained from using."

"Excellent. Now, Sakura, I'm sure you know that the jump to dodge my wave of wood was clumsy, as you seemed to learn from it the second time. Just remember that you need to think of that the first time- when you jump, you are committing yourself to having little ability to dodge until you land. Don't use it as a first resort. Good work corralling me to Sai's trap."

Sakura replied:

"Thank you, sensei. I will be sure to remember that."

"As for you, Sai, good job subduing me- but when you had the moment of distraction that your snakes provide, it was a good idea to disable my hands outright so I could not make handseals."

"Yes, sir."

"Alright. I expect everyone at 6 AM tommorrow at the gates."

Sakura, Sai, and Yamato began to walk away, but Naruto chased after Sakura. She walked a little faster in order to outpace him but seemed to resign to his wish to talk to her after a moment.

"Hey, Sakura… I'm not dead. Isn't that great?"

He almost immediately regretted the words as they came out of his mouth, but he could not take them back. It was a very… awkward and expectant greeting, but Naruto couldn't help it. He felt awkward and expectant.

"Yes, Naruto, that's… that's really great."

Naruto fully caught up to her and began walking alongside his teammate.

"We're still friends, right Sakura?"

"Yes, Naruto, of course we are. I have to get home and do some chores, though. I'll see you tomorrow."

Her voice was hurried as she said this, and after finishing she sped up her pace and disappeared past a building even as Naruto tried to call out after her with his familiar offer of a date. He stopped, regret and doubt clouding his mind. Even she, it seemed, was averse to him now. The girl he fell in love with, the girl he promised to bring Sasuke back for… she didn't see him as human. He wasn't human. His mind spun, and he went to his apartment slowly, trying to ignore the looks that he was given on the way.

* * *

The next day, Naruto was at the gate several hours early. With the complete impossibility of sleep, he had decided to research his scrolls. Tired of doing so inside his apartment and figuring there would be less people to stare at him early in the morning, Naruto headed out very early. There, he continued his exercise until Sakura arrived, fifteen minutes early. Naruto made some attempted to initiate conversation with her at first, but her brisque responses successfully dissuaded these efforts. So they stood there in silence, Naruto continuously pouring over the scrolls and Sakura staring quietly off into the distance, only occasionally glancing in Naruto's direction. Naruto thought that he must have seemed even more unfamiliar to her then, working on scrolls wit. until Sai and Yamato arrived precisely at 6 o'clock mark.

"Alright, team, let's get a move on."

The four moved out with little fanfare, going at a brisk pace even for a ninja in the direction of Tenchi Bridge. It was a long day, and it turned to night with almost no conversation between the traveling ninja. Yamato signaled for his taciturn team to stop, then wordlessly created a large manor out of wood for them to sleep in for the night. Sakura gasped, but everyone ignored her.

"Alright, I'll take first watch, Sakura can take the next, Naruto the third, and Sai the last. Understood?"

Naruto spoke up.

"I don't need to sleep, sensei. I can keep watch all night."

Yamato almost looked surprised for a moment before he collected himself. Obviously, he had not taken into account that Naruto was a puppet.

"Very well, Naruto. The rest of us can catch some sleep, then."

Turning to the other two, he said:

"Don't get used to this, you won't always have the luxury of having a… an insomniac on your team. For now, though, everyone go to bed. We arrive at Tenchi Bridge only an hour before the expected meeting tomorrow. I will wake you up when we need to leave."

With a nod, Sai and Sakura headed inside. Yamato paused to get a word in to Naruto.

"Naruto… what are you working on with those scrolls?"

The genin in question looked up from unsealing his table and scrolls.

"I'm trying to find a way… I'm trying to find a way to become human again, sensei."

His voice was sad, poorly disguising the heartbreak that hid behind it. Yamato nodded and went inside the manor. Naruto didn't know why he expected sympathy from the man. Perhaps because he had been one of the only people that seemed to almost not notice Naruto's condition. But like the rest, he offered no pity or support.

Naruto busied himself in his scrolls as night fell. He poured over the information contained intensively; he had also… appropriated some library scrolls to study by sheer intimidation factor. Apparently, civilians now held more fear than spite for him, because he was able to merely walk in and request the scrolls he needed. The library scrolls contained a lot of information about sealing. One scroll he had taken described the battle tactics of Suna ninja; since this included puppeteering, Naruto gleaned a lot of information about the art and its basics. That was incredibly helpful in deciphering some of Sasori's notes, because the man did not stop to explain the intermediary steps between knowing nothing and the level he was operating on.

It would have been unthinkable for Naruto's premortem attention span for him to actually spend so much time pouring over text. But the events he had lived through after his death had begun to warp him significantly, and he was able to concentrate on the scrolls. Of course, it was only so because of a desperate need to become human again that his mind allowed him this single-minded luxury; but Naruto failed to recognize his own desperation. All he knew was that he needed his humanity back. It and regaining his precious interpersonal relationships were the only thoughts that occupied his mind anymore.

Naruto had started his own scroll of notes, and it was predictably disorganized and nonsensical- to anyone else who read it. To him it made perfect sense. What was contained in it thus far were important tidbits from Sasori's notes, as well prototypes of simple seals from the library scrolls that he was making to practice the art. He was not going to understand the complex interactions of sealing and puppeteering overnight; he was alternating the practice of both in order to reach a level on which he would. So far, he was capable of creating low capacity storage seals and understood the simple premise of puppeteering. It was not easy to learn; Naruto was clever but he was not traditionally intelligent. But he persevered.

And persevere he did throughout his entire "shift." At the end of the night, he had made marked progress- his inability to be exhausted allowed him to focus his undivided attention on it. His storage seal was of significantly greater capacity, and he was able to create a seal that applied a temporary Henge to an object when activated. He no longer had nerves, so it was no problem to remain precise when making seals. He felt that his progress would only skyrocket, and that almost made him feel giddy despite his immense feeling of depression.

In the morning, Yamato walked out with Sakura and Sai. The four exchanged few pleasantries before the jounin dismantled his manor and the team left in the direction of Tenchi Bridge. The trip was as uncomfortable as it was the day before- the team remained in unbroken silence throughout the entire day. It was only a few hours before they arrived to an area close to Tenchi Bridge, where Yamato stopped them.

The bridge was surrounded by trees on both sides. It was a fairly standard looking bridge, painted red and made of wood. Below it was a steep drop into a ravine. The day was chilly and thick with anticipation.

"I will disguise myself as Sasori, and engage the spy in conversation. I want you three to wait for my signal, then attack. We are to capture him alive- so don't use any techniques that might kill him."

There was a general nod of understanding among the underlings before Yamato created a wooden construct that looked exactly like Sasori's old puppet shell. Naruto never did catch its name. Yamato moved out onto the bridge, and about twenty minutes later out came the spy- Sakura nearly gasped, which would have revealed her position. Naruto showed no reaction, mostly because he couldn't. Had Kabuto betrayed Orochimaru?

Yamato cautiously approached Kabuto in his wooden shell. Kabuto began to speak.

"Well, Master Sasori, you seem to be quite early."

In an imitation of Sasori's voice from inside the puppet, Yamato spoke. Naruto shuddered internally, the voice and appearance bringing back bad memories.

"You kept me waiting."

"I apologize, Master Sasori. Here, I have a report for you detailed here."

With that, Kabuto pushed up his glasses and waved a piece of paper. Yamato got close enough to pick up the paper with his tail before Kabuto suddenly smashed the wooden shell with a chakra scalpel. Shrapnel went flying, and Yamato jumped back reflexively.

"I have found a new master, one that broke your genjutsu for me… Heh. So that's what you look like inside your shell."

Yamato signaled for his team to attack just as Orochimaru Body Flickered into view, apparently having hid behind some trees. The two parties did not attack immediately. Weapons drawn, they faced each other for several moments. Orochimaru was the first to speak.

"It seems that my old friend Sasori is dead. Truly… what a loss. Wait… Naruto?"

Ororchimaru looked almost perplexed for a moment, but quickly collected himself.

"My my, seems you had a run-in with Sasori, didn't you? Why, you've aroused my curiousity. How are you still… alive? Autonomous? Why don't you come with me, Naruto?"

Naruto was taken aback for a moment, then spat out:

"The day I come with you is the day you take me to Sasuke so he can come back."

Orochimaru smiled unpleasantly.

"Still haven't changed, have you Naruto? Still haven't outgrown that foolish dream. But you know, Sasuke has grown a lot. In fact, I think he's definitely stronger than you."

Naruto paused for a moment and Sakura glanced at him nervously, while Yamato prepared his sealing technique. Red chakra began spilling out of his body, and he went down to all fours as three tails sprouted from behind him. Yamato rushed to seal the jinchuuriki, but it was too late, as Naruto made a dash towards Orochimaru. Orochimaru smiled and created an Earth clone that engaged Naruto in taijutsu. The sannin's clone, however, was quickly destroyed with its diminished reflexes. Orochimaru blew a gust of wind from his mouth, which Naruto dodged; it was followed by a spear of rock that snagged Naruto mid-dodge. Pushed back but unfazed, Naruto kept running at his opponent. Orochimaru summoned a large snake and summoned Kusanagi from his mouth. As Naruto attempted to make a side swipe at the snake, Kusanagi nearly took his head off. He rolled away from both, and attempted to engage Orochimaru directly. He dodged around Kusanagi a couple of times before the snake bit his chakra cloak, piercing through it with its powerful fangs. Naruto howled in rage and jumped back. Kusanagi followed him, and so did Orochimaru's words.

"Show me the power of the Kyuubi, Naruto… surely you are stronger than this. Sasuke would easily defeat you."

Naruto roared and smashed into Orochimaru at a greater speed, but it turned out to be another Earth clone and Naruto smashed his way past the bridge into several trees. Another tail began to sprout behind him and his already thick chakra cloak began to condense into a demon-like appearance. Meanwhile, Yamato had disappeared from the battlefield, as had Sai; Sakura had noticed their absence but not their actual disappearance. She decided to engage Kabuto while the latter was turned watching the battle, and paid for it with a chakra scalpel to the shoulder. She jumped back and began to heal it up with her other arm as Kabuto smirked.

"You know, it's rather rude of you to attack while I'm spectating such an interesting fight."

Sakura barked back:

"Screw you, Kabuto! I won't let you do this!"

Kabuto smirk widened.

"Oh, what's that? Protect your "friend?" I can see in your eyes you are unsure of him. You know, he's not even human anymore. Perfect for Lord Orochimaru's experiments."

"Shut up!" Sakura cried out as she launched into another assault on Kabuto. Their taijutsu match was intense; it was a battle of precision against brute force. Sakura's punches were dodged easily, though, and it was much harder for her to deflect Kabuto's fast and precise strikes. Eventually, Kabuto nicked an artery, but was punched in the gut for his trouble. He landed in a heap a few feet away, and as he slowly picked himself up, he saw Sakura on a knee from blood loss as she desperately tried to heal the damage her adversary had done. Kabuto saw his opportunity leapt at her with lethal intent.

Naruto had seen portions of this battle even as he battled with Orochimaru, and only when he was already in his four-tailed form did he notice Kabuto's rush toward his only present teammate. Not conscious enough to distinguish friend from foe accurately, he launched a Tailed Beast Ball at the bridge. It cost him Orochimaru's Kusanagi launching him deeper into the forest, so he was not allowed to see what his Tailed Beast Ball had done.

As luck would have had it, Kabuto was too close to dodge- he was at the dead center of the trajectory and even though he jumped back the instant it was launched, he was practically dissolved in the blast. Sakura, on the other hand, jumped back- but was still partially hit by the blast, brutally dismembering her right arm and sending her flying into the ravine. She hit one wall of it and tumbled down. The bridge was completely destroyed.

Orochimaru followed Naruto through the woods, nearly meeting another Tailed Beast Ball head on. He managed to summon the Demon Gates in time, however, and he survived. The area around was cratered. Orochimaru noted with silent surprise that two of the Demon Gates were pierced and the entire area was covered with a red-green mist that seemed to be highly acidic. The sannin cleared the area with a wind jutsu before his wall was entirely dissolved, and canceled his technique. In the middle of the crater that became visible was Naruto on all fours.

Naruto looked at him with rage in his entirely white, inhuman eye slits. Unable to make any broad motions, Naruto launched yet another Tailed Beast Ball at Orochimaru, who used a Substitution jutsu to avoid its blast radius. He used Kusanagi again, stabbing Naruto but not piercing his chakra cloak. He went through handseals and buried the immobile Naruto under a wave of earth. Soon, though, the earth exploded and the crater deepened as it seemed Naruto had used the same technique.

It took a few more rounds of back and forth, with Naruto sending out Tailed Beast Ball after Tailed Beast Ball and Orochimaru trying various techniques to pierce his chakra cloak, before Orochimaru felt himself running low on chakra from the various expensive techniques he was using. Sensing Yamato nearby, Orochimaru intentionally disappeared from view and gave him the opportunity to appear and suddenly apply a seal to Naruto's transformation. As soon as this happened and Naruto's transformation faded, Orochimaru appeared suddenly and swiped up Naruto's body, easily breaking the pillar of wood that appeared to stop him.

"So you were one of my experiments back in Konoha… interesting that you survived. Why don't you come with me?"

Yamato showed no emotion but sent out a block of wood from his hand at the sannin. Orochimaru easily twisted his body to dodge and brought out Kusanagi from his mouth. Yamato attempted to dodge, but was snagged by the blade as it changed direction mid-trajectory. Falling to the ground from the poison, the last thing he saw was Orochimaru approaching to collect his body.

* * *

Naruto awoke to the feeling of heavy chakra suppressing seals. As he slowly regained his vision, he realized he was in a room not unlike the one that Sasori had kept him in. For a brief moment he had a flashback to his traumatic pseudo-memory of Team Eight talking to him as puppets, and he thrashed against his bindings. After it passed, though, he realized he was captured by somebody else because Sasori was dead- he had watched Sasori die. He had just fought against Orochimaru, though. Thoughts flooded his mind.

In all likelihood, he was captured by Orochimaru. This was… he was closer to Sasuke, now, but that only mattered if he could break free. He tried calling upon the chakra of the Kyuubi but found that something had cut his contact with the Tailed Beast. He struggled against his bindings for a few minutes, too, then stopped and gave up as they did not budge. He needed to break out. He couldn't… he didn't want to be captured again. He couldn't be in captivity again. He just… couldn't. It would break him.

He turned his head- this was better than his previous captivity if nothing else but that he could do that- and looked around the room. It was a large room, and while the color and ceiling WAS initially reminiscent of Sasori's "operating room," it was something much more than that. For inside were lots of cages and other restraining devices that held… human bodies. None of them seemed conscious except for Naruto. It was extremely unsettling to be alone among so many bodies.

He had no way of knowing how long he had been out, or how long he had spent in captivity. After all, the chakra suppressing seals seemed extremely strong, and if he had been kept in a state of low enough chakra to not fully awaken, there was no telling how long he had spent captured. If that was the case, though, why had he awakened now? It made little sense for them to randomly weaken, but then… maybe they degraded from exposure to Kyuubi's chakra? One thing that Naruto had noticed in his own studies was that seals tended to react badly to continuous exposure to his Tailed Beast's chakra. But, it was mostly suppressed… it could have been years since he'd been out. Years. That thought disturbed Naruto greatly. What sorts of experiments could have been performed on him in that time?

Over the next few hours, Naruto felt the chakra seals weaken. Now that some of the Kyuubi's chakra had escaped, it seemed that it was eating away at his restraints rather quickly. As soon as he had enough strength, he broke off the bindings and sat up. He examined the seal on his stomach, and noticing a half-broken Five Elements Seal on his stomach, removed it with his new sealing knowledge. He was entirely free of any bindings, both chakra-based and physical, within a matter of minutes. Naruto performed a cursory examination of his body, and it seemed to be undamaged- if there was any damage, it was little, for the Kyuubi's chakra already healed it up.

He headed over to a nearby desk, attracted by the presence of notes on top of it. He examined them as closely as his understanding of seals would allow; apparently, Orochimaru had picked up where Sasori left off with research into living puppets and had a small degree of success with it. Also present were studies of the seal of Jashin on Naruto's forehead, and apparently Orochimaru had devised some sort of method of communicating with the god- for what purpose, Naruto had no idea. Grabbing the scrolls, he put them in his storage seals and tried to open the door leading out of the room. Strangely, it did not open. He pushed on it harder, using the considerable strength he had gained from being turned into a puppet. The door budged a little bit, and through the crack that opened up sand began pouring in. Naruto managed to collect himself in time to slam the door shut.

What… this couldn't be happening. He was trapped underground. The lab he had been in had been buried, for some reason. Upon further reflection, it was probably because it had been found and Orochimaru had to retreat, or because someone had found it and buried it. If it was the former, it could have been because of a mission to save him… that would be extremely ironic. How was he going to get out of the lab, though? He couldn't move the sand, he had no jutsu on a large enough scale to actually break through the door and move the dirt entrapping. The Rasengan was too focused of a blast to actually make a sizable dent in the sand- and whatever dent it did make would be filled up fairly quickly. He could try using Shadow Clones, but that was unlikely as well. If only he knew the jutsu that would let him dig through the dirt…

He supposed that was a moot point. He could try breaking the ceiling, but since it was undiscovered, the laboratory was likely completely underground, and he at least had freedom of movement in this room. Being buried in dirt would deny him even that luxury. He began searching the lab for anything that could be used to break out. He started with scrounging the desks; unfortunately, it seemed that while they did contain many more scrolls for him to pocket, they did not have any actual tools besides a scalpel or two. There were so many notes, though. He figured he would read them later, either after breaking out or after he gave up looking for a method of doing so.

Every desk in the room just contained notes, so Naruto, out of a morbid curiousity and a need to exhaust his options, approached the cages. Unsurprisingly, every single one of the cages' occupants was dead- he was the only one of them that did not require sustenance, after all. With a heavy heart, Naruto moved over to the one structure in the large room that did not have a duplicate- a giant tube of water. He paused for a moment before deciding not to break the glass, since he had the notes on what it contained on him already- he just needed to read them.

Sitting down, Naruto began an intensive study of the scrolls that he had collected. There was a LOT of information contained on them, and using it, Naruto figured he could do a lot. After all, he had all the time in the world.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Sorry for the wait, but thank you for all of the encouragement. It keeps me going. On an important note, I'm actually going to be doing some editing on these first three chapters so this story better reflects what I want it to be. Changes will be noticeable in the reading but likely not plot important, so you don't need to reread anything once I finish. Anyway, enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

It was months before the seal was done, but it was well worth it. Of course, Naruto had not spent all of his time working on it- he done plenty of work on combining Sasori's and Orochimaru's research plans, and had achieved a decent amount of results. As much as it disgusted him, he actually sealed up the corpses that were in the cells- they were in varying states of decay- and decided to make them into puppets. He had thought about this decision a lot, but figured that since he had not killed them and that practicing the art would help him discover some of the secrets that kept him from having a human body, it was not so immoral. Or at least, that's what he told himself. He didn't have the materials in his little prison to actually make any puppets for him to try out. To understand how to reverse the human puppet process, he would first have to understand how it was done in the first place.

The seal he had finished was something else. Adapted from bits and pieces of the various scrolls Naruto was working on, it was a very powerful, very focused explosive tag. It was loaded with some of the Kyuubi's chakra and even resembled a Tailed Beast Ball in some respects- at the very least, in the chakra expended for it. However, the blast was designed to be one way only, and powerful enough to crater the entire area above Naruto. The explosion would spread out to make a curve outward to ensure that the entire area did not have a chance on collapsing on the living puppet.

Making it was painstaking work. Loading it up with chakra was the last and easiest step- figuring out how to make the explosion one way, how to curve the blast, and how to get it to accept chakra as fuel for the explosion had been rather difficult. However, in the process, Naruto's sealing knowledge had considerably increased. Using a small hand mirror in the lab, he had examined both the Nine Tails Seal on his stomach and Jashin's seal on his forehead. While he was able to glean some information off of the former, the latter was still completely incomprehensible to him.

Finally, when the explosive seal was triple-checked for mistakes and everything Naruto wanted to take with him was put in storage seals, he drew a copy of his bomb on the ceiling, dropped down, and triggered it. The resulting explosion was massive, but it did exactly what Naruto wanted it to do. The night sky was wide above him for the first time in months, and Naruto rejoiced at being free of his prison. The crater it created was enormous and the noise was very loud, so Naruto knew he had to move before anyone less than welcome came to investigate the disturbance. He thankfully still had his map on him, so he quickly sealed up a number of large branches for creating puppets and moved on in a random direction until he could find a landmark and get his bearings.

It turned out to be another day of travel even after Naruto had found his landmark, a small village that he saw but dared not to approach. The trip gave him time to reflect, and thoughts bothered his already troubled mind more. What had happened in that fight with Orochimaru? Perhaps it was merciful that he remembered none of it, but the thought haunted him. Had Orochimaru really defeated him even with all of the enhancements that the Kyuubi's chakra brought? And even more troublingly, Naruto realized that the chakra of the Nine-Tails had mastered him- overcome his senses in a worse way than even Sasori did. At least with being a puppet under Sasori, even while being used for evil, he saw and understood what was going on. Under Kyuubi's influence, he remembered nothing and was not in control at all. Ironically, even after gaining his autonomy back as a puppet, he still could not retain it during crucial moments. Someone was always trying to control him. These were among many of the thoughts that circulated in his head during the trip.

Eventually, after crossing into Fire Country, he approached it cautiously, but he had never been good at stealth. A ninja, thankfully with a Konoha headband, noticed him out of a small watchtower. Naruto would have breathed a sigh of relief if he were capable of it. Allies! He could finally go back to Konoha and-

"Stop! Naruto Uzumaki, you have been charged with crimes against the Hidden Leaf Village! Will you go quietly?"

Naruto paused in shock, then slowly replied:

"...what? I am a loyal ninja of Konohagakure, I would never..."

The other ninja repeated his question with a more threatening tone.

"Will you or will you not go quietly?"

Naruto was dumbfounded, but he found it in himself to reply to the affirmative. The ninja called out the names of his teammates, and three Konoha nin Body Flickered next to Naruto.

The walk to Konoha was excruciating. Fear and doubt clouded Naruto's mind, and he hardly noticed his environment as he mechanically put foot in front of foot. What crimes had he committed? What had happened in that fight with Orochimaru that he was now a wanted criminal? Or perhaps they assumed he had defected? Whatever the reason, Naruto wanted answers much sooner than he could get them, and that agitated him greatly. He wasn't a criminal- he was still a loyal ninja of the Hidden Leaf. Any attempts at asserting this fact to the ninja escorting him met with an order to shut up, so Naruto quickly stopped trying. But he never stopped thinking.

Escape did cross his mind, but he quickly dismissed the thought. Escape would make him look guilty, would turn the village against him even more. No, he needed to prove his innocence- if he was indeed innocent- or repent for whatever mistakes he made. People knew him in the Hidden Leaf- he had friends, or thought he did. People would vouch for him. Of course, all of his "friends" had seemed especially cold to him, but maybe they would still step up in respect for his past as a human being. The thought that all of his work to reach acceptance in the village was for nought kept surfacing, and he did his best to ignore it. But what he couldn't ignore was the nagging, subconscious feeling that this would not end well.

The party reached the village in relative peace, and the guards at the gate made only a cursory check of the documents that the ninja held before letting them into the village. While both of the chuunin on duty did their best to ignore Naruto, one of them happened to meet eyes with the prisoner. The stony-faced look on the normally playful Kotetsu's face crushed Naruto's spirits. It was a little thing, but it conveyed all at once a message of unwelcomeness and disgust to the living puppet. As he entered through the gates, he kept his head down and his senses low. He did not want to experience any of the pain that was sure to follow if he paid attention to the villagers.

Thankfully, over the years he had become quite adept at ignoring whispers and harsh looks, so it was no trouble for him to engross himself in his own thoughts as the short trip to the Torture and Interrogation Department was made. Soon, he was marched into a cell and thrown in, and told that Inoichi would meet with him as soon as the clan head was available. Of course, chakra restrictive seals were also applied. Naruto did his best to keep his head clear. His thoughts had tortured him enough, and he chose to withhold his panic until he got a chance to find out what happened and clear his name.

Surprisingly, though, surrounded by grey walls and metal bars, Naruto's natural optimism kicked in for the first time since he was turned into a puppet. He did not know why, but suddenly he felt as if everything would turn out ok. Inoichi would probe his mind and find out the true events of what had happened, his name would be cleared, and he would be free to go. And then, with the strides he had made in his research and a little more time, he would find a way to become human again and everything would be back to normal. If there was a will, there had to be a way. And he thought again that people knew him in the Hidden Leaf- what reputation he had established would surely help him, would it not? Then, he would destroy Akatsuki and become Hokage because of that accomplishment. That was what was going to happen, he thought. It was what he chose to believe because the alternative was despair.

Naruto kept up this state of mind until Inoichi arrived in a few hours. He wordlessly let Naruto out of the cell and led him into the same interrogation room with the binding chair. Naruto sat down and prepared himself for another mind probe while Inoichi finally spoke:

"Are you aware what charges you are under suspicion of, Naruto?"

Naruto looked up and shook his head, eagerly awaiting Inoichi's next words.

"You are under suspicion for the destruction of your entire team and defection to Orochimaru."

That sentence stunned Naruto. His entire team was dead? Sakura? No, it couldn't be…

"None… none of them survived?" he said in a croaking voice.

"That is correct. Later agents sent to the same bridge found only Sakura Haruno's body at the bottom of the ravine, mangled and torn apart by what seemed to be the Kyuubi's chakra. Orochimaru's base nearby was tracked down by a sensor team and raided by a large team of ninja. The entire area was blown to bits moments after our team entered the base and there were only a couple survivors to report in afterward."

Naruto sat silently for a few minutes processing what he had just been told. He couldn't believe what had happened. He had… he had killed Sakura? What had he done? What kind of monster had he become?

"In lieu of what we have and the lack of any further information, I have been asked to again scan your brain for memories. Are you prepared?"

Naruto dumbly nodded his head. As before, he appeared in the wooden sewers of his mind with Inoichi, and again the two entered Naruto's memories. The remembrance of the part leading up the mission was incredibly painful, now, that Naruto had knowledge of Sakura's death. He made attention to every detail of her that his mind remembered, and focused on her wariness and aversion. It pained him, because at the time he thought he could win her over again eventually. Now she was dead, and by his hand. Just like Team 8. And just like everyone he ever cared about, a voice in his mind told him. He was a monster, an irredeemable puppet of evil forces far greater than he could ever be.

But then the pseudo memory started, just like last time. He prepared himself for Sakura talking to him, telling him he was the monster he thought himself to be and more. But instead, he felt himself in a different shape, a different form- turning his head to look at himself, he was a gigantic wooden Kyuubi. In the distance sat a tiny Konoha, which he advanced to against his will. And although he was gigantic, he still somehow saw every detail of every person on the walls. Facing him in combat stances was everyone he ever knew and cared about- Team Kurenai, Team Asuma, Team Gai, the rest of Team 7 (even Sasuke), Iruka, Tsunade, the Third Hokage, Jiraiya, his parents, Ayame and her father, even Tsunami and her son- everyone was there. A feeling of immense dread as big as his stomach gripped his throat as he approached and his friends launched jutsu after jutsu at him to no avail. He eventually reached the wall, and using his gigantic paw, began crushing the people with whom he had formed bonds. They screamed words of agony and hatred as they died, calling him a monster and a traitor and a murderer. And they did not say Kyuubi- they all said Naruto. Naruto screamed internally, but could only watch as they all died one by one. His mind began to crack, and he eventually, mercifully, blacked out.

It was some time before he awoke, and it was in a cell with more chakra restraining seals than ever before, and with a seal on his stomach that kept him from accessing the Kyuubi. Thoughts flooded his mind again, but foremost was a question: what happened? Why was he still chained? Didn't he prove his innocence? His intention? His mind raced at mile a minute asking this question and proposing ever more insane theories that answered it, but he calmed down after awhile. Then, after the panic of his trappings faded, his mind reverted to thinking about what he had found out in the interrogation room.

He… he had killed Sakura. And likely his entire team. All because he couldn't control the Kyuubi's chakra, because was overpowered by it and made a marionette by the stuff. What was wrong with him? But the more he thought about it, the better he understood. It wasn't a matter of what was wrong with him. It was a matter of control. He could not let anything control him, because deep down he was a monster. And if he allowed anyone else to have control over him, that meant that that monster was let loose and allowed to harm those he loved. This was it. He had killed Sakura, not the Kyuubi, not the Kyuubi's chakra. And he had killed Team Ten, not Sasori. It was his own recklessness that led to both situations and he took full responsibility for it in his mind.

It was a noble intention, but also absolutely crushing. It grated on him, and although he tried to look at it with a "past is in the past" attitude, the haunting faces of his victims kept returning. If he was honest with himself, he was at a breaking point. He had personally killed too many of those close to him, and this "revelation" about control was just him trying to rationalize before he completely lost it. And in the back of his mind, he could feel himself slipping away to a place he had never been before- the place one goes when trauma and guilt become too much to bear, a place of thin, desperate apathy that tries to hold back an impossibly tall tidal wave of grief. The burden he carried was greater than ever before, and it was a testament to his strength of character that he did not immediately relinquish his sanity to the abyss.

Hours passed and Naruto's desperation only grew. He dwelled on his killings obsessively, and on the pseudo-memories he got from Inoichi's mind probing. He cursed that he couldn't truly feel pain, so that he could not hurt himself. Even sleep could not enrapture him, though he doubted he would see anything but nightmares. Memories of his childhood floated up, and he readily accepted the treatment he had received in his mind. He knew he was a monster, and he hated every moment of his existence. The thought of suicide clung like a leech to his mind, but he had no means to do so, confined in his cell as he was.

Could he have stopped Sasori? It was his fault that he stayed to fight the puppeteer. Kakashi had delegated the team differently. Maybe then Sakura wouldn't be dead. Maybe then Team Kurenai and Granny Chiyo wouldn't be dead. His mistakes, his recklessness, and in the case of his fight against Orochimaru, his willingness to relinquish control. He screamed at Jashin in his mind, cursing the name of the god that had brought him back from the dead into an existence more hellish than he could have ever imagined. He alternated between raging at Jashin, Sasori, and Kyuubi, cursing himself, and studying every detail he could remember from everything related to the deaths of his companions. A grim, unhealthy fascination with their deaths began to form in a semi-conscious portion of his mind, and eventually, a plan formed that he would have never dreamed of otherwise. Sakura had been killed by him, and so had Team Kurenai. Maybe if he recovered their bodies, they could be brought back to life. Jashin had had the power to return Naruto to his former shell, he probably could do the same to the other Konoha nin. Yes… he could fix up the bodies, after all, he had the puppeteering skills to do so now.

It was as Naruto was engrossed in these thoughts that his cell opened, and a robotic "Hello" made him look up to see a masked ANBU member standing in his cell. Naruto said mechanically:

"Hello."

The ANBU member continued in his emotionless tone.

"I have been sent here on behalf of Danzo Shimura to extend to you an offer. You have not been made aware of this, but you have a pending execution in the next couple of weeks. The Kyuubi will be extracted from you and sealed in a different container, and should you survive the process you are to be put to death. Danzo believes this an unbefitting fate for a ninja of your caliber, and proposes that you join Root to avoid execution. Should you choose to accept this offer, you will be taken from your cell and put through Root's rigorous training process to allow you to control the Nine-Tails and prepare you to better serve the village under Lord Danzo's direct supervision. Do you accept?"

Naruto took a moment to process this information. He was going to be put to death, and no one even told him about it? Perhaps he deserved it, because he was such a monster. But on the other hand, he still had things to do. He needed to atone for the deaths of his friends by trying to give them life once more. He had to try. It was imperative that he did not die before trying.

"Tell Danzo… I accept."

Naruto watched a guard unlock his cell just a few hours later. He did not recognize the man, but he was grateful that Danzo had gone through with his promise. Since the man's agent had visited him, he had turned over the proposal and what he knew of Danzo several times in his head, primarily viewing the organization as a means to the freedom to resurrect his dead friends. Although the Third Hokage had warned him about Danzo's less than trustworthy nature in the past, it did not matter to Naruto now. He needed his freedom for his one chance at redemption; the cost to doing so wasn't particularly important. A part of Naruto was scared at himself for thinking like that; but it was squelched beneath the rest of him that was experiencing the nervous obsession with redemption.

The chakra suppression seals were removed with practiced efficiency and Naruto was led out of the cell and down a hallway he hadn't been down before. A tough-looking man stood guard at its end; to the right of him stairs extended upward. Upon seeing Naruto and his escort, he nodded silently and stepped aside. Naruto watched with impatient curiosity as the guard that got him out of the cell made a few handseals and pressed his palm to the wall; a door-sized entrance opened. The former captive made as if to follow the guard down the newly opened tunnel, but he was stopped with the raise of a hand. Naruto paused, and a blindfold was quickly tied around his eyes. With that, he was led down into the tunnel.

From what Naruto could tell, he was walking through some sort of maze. The tunnel had plenty of turns in it, and there was little lighting- Naruto could not see through the cloth of the blindfold at all. However, it was clear to him he was being led in a manner designed to confuse his sense of direction, because he lost track of where he was eventually. That annoyed him, but more pressing thoughts and concerns soon consumed his mind once more. He wondered if Danzo would be open to Naruto's actual final goal- the more he thought about it, though, the more he understood that if he did discover reanimation, the Hidden Leaf Village would benefit greatly. Danzo would appreciate that, surely, and allow him to continue with his experiments.

Eventually, Naruto was stopped and his blindfold was taken off. All at once he saw a dimly lit, large room with several people standing in an area sectioned off by thick glass. Among them was Danzo, but that was the only face Naruto recognized. Although the rest were unfamiliar, all of them bore the same expression: stony-faced neutrality. In the larger portion of the room stood only Naruto and another ninja. This was a large man, a burly figure with a badly scarred face. He wore a lot of kunai pouches and had on an Iwagakure headband. His clothes consisted of a prisoner's outfit- it seemed incongruous with his headband and heavily armed state. He spoke in a deep, masculine voice.

"Now, I ain't gonna pit fight for ya for nothing- you swear you lettin me go if I destroy this thing?"

Danzo spoke in a completely neutral tone, and his voice resonated throughout the mostly empty room.

"Yes. Now, Naruto, you and this gentleman here are to battle to the death. Should you win, you are to be admitted into Root- should he win, he will be set free."

Naruto found it incredibly hard to believe that his opponent would be set free upon winning the bout, and that he would even be a good fight for Naruto. This was a test of the ability for the Root initiate, nothing more. He decided to end this quickly and decisively. Danzo signaled for the battle to begin, and apparently the enemy had decided to engage in some pre-fight trash talk because he had managed to get out a syllable before Naruto cloned himself and sent out about a dozen poison clouds from the launcher in his stomach.

Naruto knew the fight was over as the cloud did not dissipate. Coughing and cursing could be heard from within it for the first few seconds, then choking, then nothing. Ventilation systems overhead cleared the gas from the room after a few minutes, and by the time that the field of vision was clear only three entities were in the room: Danzo, Naruto, and the corpse of Naruto's opponent lying face down on the ground. The expression on his face was one of shock, but Naruto chose to ignore it. He had done what he had had to, and he had seen worse. Danzo spoke up.

"Your abilities are greater than what I expected, to be able to close out the fight with a B-rank opponent so quickly. I of course expected you to use poison, but not enough to cover the entirety of this room. Regardless, you will be beginning Root training almost immediately, seeing as you do not need to rest. I have prepared a… specialized course for you. First, though, an interview is in order."

With those words, Naruto was escorted out of the room by another Root operative. Once again blindfolded, he was led down several more corridors before his blindfold was removed. This time, he was in a small office- in front of Danzo, surrounded on both sides by Root ninja. The chair that he was placed in drained him of his chakra and restricted the movement of his hands and feet. Naruto bristled at this at first, but realized it was just Danzo's paranoia as the conversation went on and calmed down somewhat.

"Hello, Naruto. I will ask questions here, and you will respond truthfully and accurately. At no point are you to deviate from directly answering these questions. Understood?"

Naruto nodded silently.

"How do you feel about Konoha?"

At this point the living puppet paused. Of course, he should have expected the question, but his own feelings on the matter were confused. After a moment, he decided he would voice the part of him that would best please Danzo.

"Lord Danzo, I am a loyal member of Konohagakure and would die to defend it. I care for its people and want to do what is in their best interests. As you know, I have been rejected by it multiple times in the past, this current time not among the least; I still harbor no treasonous intention and would like to serve the village as you best see fit."

"Why did you accept my invitation to join Root?"

Naruto paused, but decided to tell the truth.

"I… I wanted to die, but realized that my only chance at atonement for the death of my comrades was to bring them back. And if I am put to death, there would be no chance of that."

"How far would you go in serving the village under me?"

"I would do anything you requested of me, Lord Danzo, within the boundaries of my morality."

Naruto knew that that last part was a mistake as soon as it came out of his mouth. The atmosphere of the room and Danzo's expression and voice did not change, but Naruto just knew that it was a strike against him. He eventually calmed down as the conversation went on and nothing changed.

"How much do you know about the god Jashin, who is purported to have brought you back from the dead?"

"I know very little about him, except that he looks like a grim reaper with a mask and he wanted me to eventually do some sort of ritual for him."

"How much do you know about your own current state- how you are currently alive with the body of a puppet?"

"I know that I am reanimated with Jashin's jutsu, and that I am anything but human right now. I need no rest, no sleep, my senses do not need adjustment to new environments- I am a human in the body of a machine."

Danzo nodded and concluded the interview, with his aide scribbling down the last words as fast as humanly possible.

* * *

During the next month, Naruto underwent a lot of changes. Shortly after the interview, Naruto was subjected to the mind probing of a Yamanaka and soon put through intense loyalty training. Predictably, pain conditioning was found to be wholly ineffective- thus, Naruto found himself in another dimly lit chamber, this one far smaller than the one he had fought in. In front of him was shown a clip detailing the greatness of Konohagakure. Naruto found it laughably easy to process the first time, since it was just propaganda. It went over the greatness of the Hokages and the importance of protecting the Hidden Leaf. Danzo was given the lion's share of the praise. The clip did bring back some painful memories of his childhood, but it did little more. The second and third time went down similarly, but by the time the eighth time rolled around, Naruto wanted out. He was bored and wanted it to stop, but it was not like he could close his eyes- or even move his head, because the chair he was in was fully restraining of his motion. So he had to sit there and watch. And watch. And watch. He stopped counting how many times he had seen it partway through, and by the end he could replay the clip in his head perfectly despite his inability to close his eyes.

The message being sent home quite thoroughly, emotional training started the same way. At first, it was an easy matter- simply small tests of his morality. Small animals in danger he could ignore upon command. He had seen and lived through far worse than that, and although his natural empathy attempted to protest, he quelled it. What was harder were the genjutsu that forced him to decide between things like the completion of his objective and the deaths of his teammates. Of course, he at first went for his teammates' survival every time, but he was subjected to some sort of genjutsu that made him see his own murders again- that was an effective tool in conditioning him to make the "right" decision.

Eventually, with loyalty to the Hidden Leaf Village and to Danzo thoroughly embedded in his mind along with the Root mentality of objective completion at any cost, he was ready for combat training. Danzo apparently had some knowledge on how to control Tailed Beasts, because that was mostly what Naruto was trained for there. His puppet body could endure much more than four tails worth of chakra, and it was possible to retain control of his mind while in the Four Tails state. Beyond that he could go now, with the increased chakra reserves and control he had, but it was too risky to attempt within the village. There was some way of retaining full control- apparently the jinchuuriki of the Eight Tails had achieved that.

In terms of his studies, Naruto had been allowed some space to move forward some after the emotional conditioning was complete. His confiscated scrolls were returned for him to work on, Danzo explaining that with Naruto's tireless mind he was in the best position to uncover the secrets Naruto needed. He approved of Naruto's attempts to resurrect the fallen Konoha nin, but warned him that Jashin was a god of slaughter and he needed to tread carefully around anything involving the deity.

Seals were put on Naruto, of course. There was one that prevented him from talking about Root to enemies, and a suicide seal that could be triggered remotely- it was essentially an explosive seal instead of poison, because Naruto couldn't die from the latter. Seals were used in his training to draw out the Kyuubi's chakra, and he was given access to studying many seals under Danzo's direct supervision. His knowledge and power grew, and he was even allowed to experiment upon a cadaver, to turn them into a human puppet. That process was grisly, and the conditioning that allowed Naruto to turn off his emotions came in very handy there. Eventually, though, Naruto seemed to succeed- although he couldn't actually try it out because his chakra control was nowhere near the level needed to operate an entire puppet using chakra strings.

He was also given stealth and infiltration training- through dogged repetition and the use of shadow clones, Naruto reached the level of chakra control necessary to suppress his chakra and move silently. Likewise, his Henge was practiced until it was perfect. Danzo told him that these were very basic infiltration skills, and that he would still be beaten out by most operatives of Root- but they would be enough. He was not an infiltrator ninja and would not be used as such unless absolutely necessary.

Regardless, though, the day came when Danzo required his services in the field- after about a month. Naruto's unstable mind lended itself to quick emotional conditioning and the progress he had made with his constant wakefulness was astounding. A brief meeting with the Root leader revealed that the mission was of high importance- he was to infiltrate (wearing a mask, of course, and clothes that would hide his true nature) event called the Five Kage Summit. There, his mission priority was to find the Eight Tails Jinchuuriki- a tall, muscular, tanned man in sunglasses noted to be "odd"- and obtain training from him by any means necessary. He would be accompanied by another Root operative both for his safety and, as Naruto suspected, to watch over him. The other objective was to protect the Hokage if events went south. He would have wondered about that since it would seem that Danzo would be in line for the position if Tsunade died, but his conditioning dismissed the thought without any trouble.

The day was dying when the newly-minted Root operative finally saw the light of the sun again in a little over a month. That was just what he was told, anyway- he had no way of tracking the amount of time that had passed while he was underground. He was disguised quite well- a full body stretch suit covered him underneath a full body cloak, and a mask in the shape of a mole's head adorned his face. It would have been uncomfortably hot, if his senses were anything more than an indicator to him. He exited through a covert Root tunnel in the wilderness along with his traveling companion, a stoic Aburame agent. The agent had on a mask resembling a preying mantis and asked to be called simply "Manteisu."

Waning hours of the day turned into the long hours of midnight as the pair traveled restlessly in the direction of, as it turned out, the Land of Iron. During the trip, Naruto couldn't help but wonder about his mission. Although conditioning taught him not to question mission objectives, boredom was a powerful tool as well. He thought about why this "Five Kage Summit" was in the Land of Iron, though he eventually did puzzle that one out as being the most neutral territory. From the information he had on global politics- as outdated as it was- it was probably a meeting about Akatsuki. After all, no one seemed to be on the edge of war otherwise- or hadn't seemed to be when Naruto was human and informed. But that was as much as he could understand from the information he was given. Danzo hadn't exactly been forthcoming with intel on what was actually going on in the world- just that Naruto needed to be a key player for Konoha during the events ahead.

Torn away from his obsessive research, Naruto thought about something else: immortality. He was immortal now. As long as Jashin kept him alive (and Naruto thought it fair to assume Jashin was eternal) he would not die from aging. Poison could not kill him- nothing short of the annihilation of his body would, honestly. And the way puppets were made- the wood would not decay. What did that mean for him, then? He was no longer constricted by the human weakness of temporariness. That frightened him. He wanted to be human, and he wasn't. Immortality seemed to him incredibly frightening. The more he thought about it, the more these "advantages" from becoming a puppet bothered him. There was something sacred about the human form, and he never expected to be this… parody of it. Of course, he was more powerful, more efficient, but… he wasn't human. He would never taste ramen again, he would never have kids, he would never get to grow old alongside his friends. Instead, he would have to watch his friends grow old and die while he stayed young forever. That was not an enticing prospect.

His thoughts, whirling about like this, nearly led to a panic attack, but he turned off his emotions for a while before Manteisu noticed. He remained like this until his companion signalled for him to stop and unsealed a sleeping bag. Naruto was told that they were leaving in four hours and to keep watch. So he did, making a couple of Shadow Clones as he set up to do some research on the go. The Shadow Clones would do the actual watching while he studied the scrolls. He had indeed spent a lot of time studying them by now, but it was slow going after a certain point- the technique itself was highly complex and Naruto's own human puppet was incredibly basic compared to Sasori's. Since he couldn't use the puppets in combat, he wanted to animate them, to bring them back from the Land of the Dead. Danzo had given the researcher a bunch of forbidden scrolls containing the knowledge of the Hidden Leaf concerning Jashin but so far Naruto had been unsuccessful in utilizing the god's power. He needed… something more. A push.

Instead of worrying about that, though, Naruto turned his attention to giving the puppets a proper ability to exist after being given life. After all, it was unlikely that Jashin would so fully revive the others, so Naruto needed to heal them (an impossible task, many of the corpses were already in a state of decay when they were found) or make them into puppets with their own chakra systems and place for the soul. The chakra system was the easy part- Sasori had already done that part for him, he just needed to replicate the results. The soul would be found in the head- a highly theoretical seal already in place in the test dummy Naruto set up. There was no real guarantee it would even begin to do anything at all, but since it was literally just modified parts copied from Jashin's seal, there was a decent probability it would. Of course, it wasn't safe in the slightest, but that wasn't the point; Naruto deemed it a prototype for a seal that would actually perform the function.

Besides a proper holder for the mind, the main component that the construction lacked was an animation component. Something needed to jumpstart it, and Naruto could only guess that that would require advance knowledge of techniques that worked with souls along with an unfathomably large amount of chakra. That last part was complete guesswork, but Naruto suspected it was not easy to rip a soul from the Land of the Dead even with intricate and focused seals.

It was during these four hours that Naruto realized he was at an impasse. He had little idea of how to improve the enormously complex, partially-complete seal that would hold the puppet's soul. There was little way to proceed except with knowledge of how accessing the afterlife actually worked, and Naruto could only glean what was already done. He had no way of extrapolating the information he needed. Frustrated, he put the materials away and focused on something more menial: following a plan he already had for improving the design of his own body. Naruto had nothing but respect for Sasori's craftsmanship and innovativeness despite his deep-set loathing for every other aspect of the man, but Naruto felt that since it was his own body he had a right to… personalize it a bit. In particular, he had some personal effects to add. His hands could be modified to be better suited for making the Rasengan, for one. He also added two artificial appendages around the middle of where his ribcage would be (one on each side), similar in design to the puppet Hiroko's tail. These, however, were retractable… and still full of senbon to be fired from any angle. They couldn't be directly controlled like the rest of Naruto's body, but he did have enough chakra control to operate them using chakra strings. Naruto was incredibly hesitant in applying these upgrades, but Danzo upon seeing them had practically ordered Naruto to do it. He could not disobey Danzo.

As Naruto was putting the finishing touches on his modifications, Manteisu woke up and signaled for the pair to keep moving. He made no commentary upon seeing his teammate's new appendages. Naruto silently sealed up his materials and followed Manteisu's lead closer to the Land of Iron. They took an extremely convoluted path, making many turns and taking pains to ensure they did not make a trail. Apparently, this mission was incredibly secretive- which, upon reflection, Naruto found to be not surprising in the slightest given the nature of Root.

They trudged through icy ground and Naruto did not really understand how anyone lived in the country being as it was. How did they get food or at least anything to trade for food? It was surprising, but people could make a living anywhere, he supposed. Endurance was a distinctly human trait… that thought almost paused him in his tracks. As a human being, how was he supposed to move forward when caught in this shell? Giving up wasn't an option, then, was it? Because if he gave up, he would prove once and for all that he wasn't human. The human spirit was one of tenacity, and a real… human in his situation would continue the journey even despite all the murders he had done. Humbled by the thought but with his motivation redoubled, Naruto walked slightly straighter.

He had never seen mountains like the Three Wolves before, but he got over his awe at the odd natural structures and went into business mode as the pair approached the capital. They disguised their chakra heavily, and Henged into civilians. Manteisu pulled out fake identification papers as they got close to the front gate and they were let in without major trouble. Naruto personally was amazed at how well his disguise had worked- he had a massive amount of chakra and masking that fact was incredibly difficult, only possible because of a mass amount of Shadow Clones working on chakra control for days at a time. Still, it was surprising that he could pass as a civilian.

The capital looked like a Hidden Village, except instead of ninja on patrol there were samurai. The color scheme was very grey and stone-like, and about everything was covered with a thin layer of snow. Street sweepers were common, moving the snow into the alleyways and out of the main walkways. Naruto held himself perfectly according to his training for the occasion, keeping focused on his objective and pretending he had lived in the capital his entire life. The pair was generally ignored by the people around them, most people not finding much interesting about a pair of nondescript civilians. Manteisu beside him touched him lightly on the arm, leading him to a secluded alleyway. Naruto glanced at him inquisitively, but as they advanced down the alley, two figures dropped down beside them. Naruto and Manteisu turned around to face them, not dropping their disguises. The figures turned out to be Lightning nin, one dark skinned white-haired man and another a dark-skinned man in sunglasses and a turban that matched the description of the Eight Tails jinchuuriki.

"Game's up, infiltrators."

Naruto looked at Manteisu and Manteisu merely nodded at him. Realizing this was to be some sort of test for him, Naruto responded to the Kumo nin.

"Kumo ninja. We need to see the Eight Tails jinchuuriki. Are you him?"

Naruto realized he did not think through that response the moment it came out of his mouth. The one in sunglasses pulled a kunai and responded in a harsh tone:

"You think we're going to listen to assassins?"

Naruto attempted to defuse the situation.

"Hey, hey, hold on. We aren't assassins. I have a business proposition for the container of the Hachibi."

"Anything you want to say to him, you can say to us."

Naruto weighed his options carefully before responding. What could he say that would not reveal too much information but still convince them to let him see the Eight Tails jinchuuriki?

"Maybe I can see the Raikage? I'm sure he would like to hear this."

The dark skinned ninja thought for a moment, then said:

"Disarm. Relinquish all of your weaponry, let us search you and put chakra restraining seals on you, then you might be allowed a moment of the Raikage's time before the Summit formally starts."

The danger in giving oneself up on a silver platter to a non-allied Hidden Village like that was not lost on Naruto, but it seemed there were few options to do this peacefully. This Kumo ninja was not giving him much of a choice. Manteisu suddenly spoke up.

"Mention Danzo's name to the Raikage. He will want to see us."

About thirty minutes later, the Fourth Raikage himself was eyeing the two Root operatives suspiciously a short distance outside the capital. His two bodyguards- the same people that confronted the pair from Konoha- stood beside him with weapons drawn, ready to leap into action at a moment's notice.

The Raikage was a tall, muscular, dark-skinned man. The Raikage robes he wore were meant to make him look sagely, wisened; however, he was built such that he looked quite intimidating in a more… physical fashion. He did not look pleased to see Naruto or Manteisu, and he rubbed his temples as he spoke.

"What does Danzo want?"

Again Manteisu signaled for Naruto to speak, and Naruto reluctantly raised his voice.

"I am the jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tails, and I am here to request training in the use of my Tailed Beast from the jinchuuriki of the Eight-Tails."

"And what makes you think that Kumo is willing to give up the secrets of the control of the Tailed Beasts so readily?"

"Well, the Akatsuki are looking for us, and they pose a threat to the entire world, not just the jinchuuriki. We have to stop them. And… the Hidden Leaf Village would be in your debt."

The Raikage looked unimpressed, and Manteisu interjected before anything more could be said.

"Lord Raikage, Lord Danzo does not consider this service to be free. While it is imperative that both jinchuuriki be equipped as tools to stop the Akatsuki, Lord Danzo is willing to offer the services of Root- and by special request, the jinchuuriki's- services in completing a mission for Kumo, as well as a respectable sum of money."

The Raikage considered for a moment, then replied:

"Remain near the capital of the Land of Iron, and we will engage in further negotiations in the same location after the Summit is complete."

With that, the two parties departed with a relatively uneasy air. The senior Root operative informed Naruto that their next mission objective was to attend the Five Kage Summit in secret, which to Naruto sounded almost impossible. The room would undoubtedly be incredibly heavily guarded, and it would be populated by a selection of three of the most powerful ninja from each Hidden Village- none of whom wanted the Root operatives to be there. Naruto asked about how and received the one answer he did not want to hear- it was up to him.

To that end, Naruto was stumped for a while. In the hotel room he was given, he worked out as many potential plans and details as he could. None of them seemed altogether too promising after he thought two or three steps ahead. He paused a moment after the second one just to marvel at how far he'd come- the tragedy that came to him had warped his personality, eliminating not only his innocence but also his more childlike qualities. Given how obsessively he poured over his work in the past few months, he was able to actually stop and think and concentrate. He had never been terribly intelligent in the traditional sense of the word, but his experience was teaching him to stop and think- and he was growing surprisingly accustomed to if not "good" at it.

He worked throughout the night, and even as morning began he still sat puzzling at the same question. He had to take multiple breaks to unwind with a few simple exercises so he could keep his mind focused, but he worked all the same. Still stumped for answers, he decided to go for a walk around the capital now that the sun was up- perhaps he could glean inspiration from his surroundings. He exited his room, went down the stairwell and outside of the hotel door. He suddenly regretted not fully being able to appreciate the chill morning air. For a moment, his mind out cried out to be reconnected with his senses- he was nearly brought to his knees by the despairing feeling that something was wrong. He wanted to truly feel again, not just be informed about a sensation- he wanted to feel the chill breeze, to be comforted by a blanket surrounding his body, even just to feel pain when he was stabbed. The alienness of his current state crashed down onto him like a meteor.

It was only a moment, however, and after that moment the feeling was gone- but the thoughts weren't. Naruto realized that he significantly missed the sensations of a human body, that this body of a puppet deprived him of simple, everyday feelings that people took so much for granted that they even began to get annoyed with them. Engrossed in longing, he wandered the streets blindly until he was stopped by a samurai, who asked Naruto what was going on. Naruto briefly shook his head to sober himself (the gesture itself having no effect, just its familiarity refreshing Naruto's thoughts) and told him that he was merely getting to work. The samurai eyed him suspiciously for a couple more moments but let him off. Naruto set a brisk pace to the hotel room, not having realized before how militarized the Land of Iron was. On his way, he saw the Konoha entourage.

It was Tsunade with two bodyguards- Kakashi and a man Naruto recognized as the ninja that had brought him from inside the cell and into the Root lair. Refusing to think until they were out of sight, Naruto continued his trip back to the hotel. Only when back in his hotel room did he begin to think again. Naruto knew for a fact that one of Tsunade's bodyguards- one of the people that attending the meeting- was a Root operative. That meant that Danzo already had an in to the Kage Summit, and he was… testing Naruto? That was the only logical explanation. He wanted to see exactly what Naruto could come up with out in the field. Likely that was the same reason for Naruto being the one to lead on both conversations with the Kumo ninja.

So what was he to tell Manteisu? That he had seen through Danzo's test and that there was no reason for him to try to get inside the Kage Summit? No, there had to be a way, and Danzo was expecting results on that. Though, perhaps Naruto could prove his cleverness instead…in the end, his conditioning won out and he decided to follow orders in designing a plan to get inside the Kage Summit. And eventually, inspiration did hit him despite his night of fruitless brainstorming. It was a relatively simple plan, and it would require some subtle genjutsu usage on the part of Manteisu, but he could easily see it working.

So he exited his hotel room once more and went to Manteisu's room. He knocked gently at the door, but there was no response from the other side. Naruto tried the handle, but it was locked; just as he was about to turn around and search for the taciturn Root operative, he saw his companion in a civilian disguise heading toward him. Naruto greeted him, and was met with:

"What is your plan, Naruto?"

Naruto described all the details that he had thought of for his plan in a hurried whisper, to ensure no stray listening ears would find out. Manteisu confirmed that he had the jutsu to make it work, and the plan was immediately set in motion. It began with Manteisu's infiltration of the administrative building with Naruto's Shadow Clone henged into an innocuous pebble. The plan was for him to find whoever would be sweeping the meeting room and slip the pebble onto their person, while putting them under a genjutsu that would make them drop the pebble on the floor right before the Kage Summit. He would do the same to various other civilian and samurai individuals who would be visiting the room before the meeting, and so there would be many pebbles to listen on. If there was any danger to the Hokage, one of Naruto's pebbles would disappear and the pair assigned to the mission would know to rush in. Naruto thought that all of that might be too easy for infiltrating what undoubtedly would be one of most heavily guarded rooms in the Elemental Nations, but he had the tools that he had.

While Manteisu did the heavy lifting of the plan (Naruto was not nearly as good at stealth and genjutsu in order to help him), Naruto would have little to do. He could continue his research little by little, but there was still a day and a half before the actual Summit and he could not leave the capital. As such, he also couldn't break his disguise by practicing jutsu or anything requiring chakra input beyond a petty stream. Unfortunately, in order to advance his studies into the reanimation of his friends, he needed to expend chakra- to put chakra into various little designs from what Naruto copied of Jashin's seal to see exactly how they functioned. He also needed to create puppets to test an ever growing number of theories, and he couldn't do that while confined in a hotel room and attempting to stay concealed. He was running out of bodies to turn into puppets, even.

Suddenly, as he was sitting in his quarters thinking these thoughts, it occurred to him that bringing back his friends into puppet bodies would grant them the same cursed existence that he currently was experiencing. That gave him pause. Would they rather stay dead than be like him? But then again, they wouldn't have the same weight on their shoulders of being controlled. They would have their free will immediately, and then… and then together, perhaps, they could pursue their humanity. But… the sane part of Naruto had serious misgivings about how late this occurred to him. In his desperation- or was it the onset of madness?- he had entirely failed to think of that. Perhaps it was merely in the moment forgetfulness, but after that? He reflected on the thought plenty of times and it seemed inconceivable that mere forgetfulness would have that effect on him. He fervently hoped that his recollection of it now signaled a return to sanity, but he wasn't so sure. But he had read that the truly insane did not question their sanity, so that thought comforted him. He wasn't crazy. Just… determined.

But was it even possible to become human after being turned into a living puppet? His very flesh would need to be regenerated, his skin and organs were long gone, replaced by wooden parts… He sunk into despair again. He could create puppets, but how could one re-create a fully functional human body? Maybe he could transfer his consciousness like that, that was definitely a possibility- maybe into another puppet with the soul holding seal, once it was complete- but another human body..? He needed to talk to Jashin. He had to. He needed to know whether there was a possibility of him becoming human again.

How would he talk to Jashin? The reanimation seal hardly had anything to do with actually talking to the god. There was that one man who was called Hidan who seemed to be Jashin's worshipper. And he walked away from Akatsuki and seemed friendly to Naruto, meaning that… meaning that Naruto might be able to get answers from him. He resolved to find this 'Hidan' again, perhaps ask Danzo about finding him…

But Danzo wouldn't allow him the freedom to pursue Hidan, would he? It didn't matter. Danzo was a great man who was protecting the greatest Hidden Village in the world; whatever he said, Naruto would follow. Although it was worth asking him, there was nothing more important to Naruto than serving his master. If he said no… he said no, and Naruto didn't do it. A part of him cried out at this thinking, and the word "cycle," disconnected from any meaning, floated up in his brain. But he pushed it aside.

Naruto kept mulling over these thoughts and ones similar to them as day turned to night and back into day again. He got a lot of thinking done, but the time for it was just about over. The Kage Summit was set to begin, and he needed to be on high alert should anything go wrong. Henging into a civilian again, he wandered to a reasonable distance away from the administrative building of the Land of Iron- close enough to sprint and arrive in time to assist, but not so close that the guards surrounding it grew suspicious of his presence. To maintain his disguise, he sat down at a ramen stand nearby and ordered a bowl- a bowl he would proceed to stare at in regret.

Given that he could not receive the memories of the Shadow Clones until they dispersed, Naruto would have to wait for the meeting's conclusion to find out what exactly had been said. And wait he did.


End file.
